Sky Sports is a group of sports television channels operated by the satellitepay-TV company Sky plc. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland, it has played a major role in the increased commercialisation of British sport since 1991, sometimes playing a large role in inducing organisational changes in the sports it broadcasts, most notably when it encouraged the Premier League to break away from the Football League in 1992.

Sky Sports Main Event, Premier League, Football, Cricket, Golf, F1, Action and Arena are available as a premium package on top of the basic Sky package. These channels are also available as premium channels on nearly every satellite, cable and IPTV broadcasting system in the UK and Ireland. Sky Sports News and Sky Sports Mix are both provided as part of basic packages. The Sky Sports network is managed by Barney Francis.

British Satellite Broadcasting, operated The Sports Channel, which launched in April 1990. In the BSB years, it shared the same frequency with its underpromoted sister channel, the Computer Channel, which broadcast in the mornings when the Sports Channel was off-air.

The Sports Channel was renamed Sky Sports on 20 April 1991, and began broadcasting to Sky viewers via the newly launched Astra 1B satellite on that date, alongside its existing transmissions on BSB's Marcopolo satellite, the channel was sold as one of the major draws of the Sky system and initially aired sports such as rugby and golf in 1991, before acquiring rights to German and Italian league football in 1996 (both carried over from the Sports Channel). The channel was initially encrypted but broadcast free-to-view, requiring an analogue VideoCrypt decoder, but no paid subscription, to be viewed, since VideoCrypt decoders were only officially available within the UK, this measure was intended to prevent viewing of the service outside the UK and Ireland.

However, it was following the formation of the Premier League for the 1992/93 football season, believed to have been assisted by the promise of higher TV payments, that Sky Sports became well known. By bidding £304m, BSkyB beat the BBC and ITV to acquire the live and exclusive Premier Leaguefootball broadcasting rights for the United Kingdom and Ireland for a five-year period. In doing so, they had taken live top-flight English league football from terrestrial and free-to-air television for the first time ever, at this point, Sky Sports became a subscription channel, available with a monthly subscription on a standalone basis, or at a reduced price if taken with Sky's movie channels.

On 19 August 1994, a secondary channel called Sky Sports 2 was launched. Likewise, the original service was renamed Sky Sports 1, on 1 November 1995, Sky launched a classic sports channel called Sky Sports Gold. However, the channel ceased broadcasting after only a year on the air, on 16 August 1996, Sky launched Sky Sports 3. Sky Sports also acquired the rights to Scottish football and the League Cup.

With the launch of the Sky Digital satellite platform in October 1998, Sky Sports launched Sky Sports News—a channel carrying rolling sports news coverage, in March 1999, followed by Sky Sports Xtra (later branded as Sky Sports 4 since 2010) in April.

During a Premier League match on 22 August 1999, Sky Sports launched an interactive television service known as Sky Sports Active via the digital platform, allowing viewers to watch matches with access to additional on-screen statistics, and a choice of alternate camera angles and replays. Sky expected to extend the interactive services to other sports the following year.[2][3]

Sky Sports' football coverage was at the centre of controversy in January 2011 when footage emerged of presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys making comments perceived as sexist, on 25 January 2011, Gray was sacked over the comments.[4] On 25 January 2011, fellow reporter Andy Burton was suspended by Sky due to his involvement in the sexist comments made about a female assistant referee, Sian Massey, which also involved Gray and Keys.[5] However, unlike Gray and Keys, Burton later returned to his regular duties at Sky.[6]

Om 29 July 2011, it was announced that Sky Sports had acquired rights to Formula One racing from 2012 through 2018, with the BBC to share free-to-air rights to roughly half of the events, and have highlights rights for the remainder.[7][8] Sky subsequently announced that it would introduce a new channel dedicated specifically to its coverage, Sky Sports F1, which would air practices, qualifying, and commercial-free coverage of each race; the channel was made available at no extra charge to all Sky high-definition subscribers, regardless of whether they were a Sky Sports subscriber.[9] Sky extended its contract in 2016, to last through 2024; beginning in 2019, Sky will hold exclusive rights to all F1 races.[10]

On 24 August 2016, Sky launched Sky Sports Mix, a new channel designed to offer a sampling of content from the full range of Sky Sports networks to those who are not subscribers, on Sky, the channel is included as a basic channel with all plans, and was also available on certain Virgin Media packages on-launch.[12][13]

On 18 July 2017, Sky re-aligned its sports channels, dropping the numbered services in favour of dedicated channels devoted to their core sports properties, including cricket, Formula One, golf, and two football channels (with one specifically dedicated to the Premier League), and three channels dedicated to general sports coverage,[14][15] it also announced the purchase of a majority stake in At the Races, which it will rename Sky Sports Racing[16]

In addition, Sky announced that it would revise the pricing structure of the channels to make them more attractive to viewers; Sky customers can purchase up to three of the channels on an a la carte basis, or the entire bundle. On Sky's Now TV service, the entire Sky Sports service continues to be available through the timed pass system, the availability and packaging of the new service varies on other providers.[14][17][15]

Sky occasionally gives one of their channels a temporary rebrand to coincide with a sports event. Examples of this include:

Sky Sports Ashes: To coincide with the 2013 Ashes series, Sky Sports 2 was renamed as Sky Sports Ashes on 30 June until 31 August 2013.[22] As well as covering the Ashes, the dedicated cricket channel also featured the Women's Ashes, domestic cricket and various magazine and review shows,[23] the practice was repeated for the 2015 Ashes series.

Sky Sports Ryder Cup: From 18 September to 2 October 2014, Sky rebranded Sky Sports 4 as Sky Sports Ryder Cup. The channel was dedicated to the coverage of the 2014 Ryder Cup, from Gleneagles, it repeated from 26 September to 5 October 2016 for the Ryder Cup for that year.

Sky Sports Darts: In recent years Sky Sports 3 has become Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the PDC World Darts Championship. The channel mixes live coverage with replays of the most recent sessions and classic moments from the tournament's history. Sky Sports Darts was first seen for the 2015 William Hill World Darts Championship[24] and it returned on 14 December 2015 however, Sky Sports F1 was temporarily renamed Sky Sports Darts until 5 January 2016.[25] For the 2017 event it was Sky Sports 3 that was renamed, from 14 December 2017 until 3 January 2018, Sky Sports Action was renamed Sky Sports Darts.

Sky Sports World Cup: From 14 February to 29 March 2015, Sky rebranded Sky Sports 2 as Sky Sports World Cup. The channel was dedicated to the coverage of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, from Australia and New Zealand.

Sky Sports The Open: During their first live broadcast of golf's Open Championship, from 11 to 18 July 2016, Sky Sports 1 rebranded as Sky Sports The Open. From 17 to 24 July 2017, Sky Sports 4 was rebranded Sky Sports The Open, and would be replaced by Sky Sports 4's replacement, Sky Sports Golf.[26]

Sky Sports The Players: From 8 May to 14 May 2017, Sky renamed Sky Sports 4 as Sky Sports The Players. The channel was dedicated to the coverage of the 2017 Players Championship.

At the Races is the only Sky Sports channel not wholly owned by Sky, although Sky purchased majority control of it in 2017. The channel was founded in 2000 by the Go Racing consortium, a partnership of Channel 4, Sky and Arena Leisure plc (owner of Ascot Racecourse, and acting on behalf of a further 27 out of the 59 UK racecourses) in July 2004. Following its high-profile collapse (and Channel 4 removing itself from the consortium) the channel – now purely a joint venture between Sky plc and Arena Leisure – focuses on horse racing from the UK, Ireland, North America and Germany, showing many live races and related shows, the station is "affiliated" with various betting companies, since gamblers are generally the sport's main audience, and its pictures, provided by satellite link provider SIS, are also commercially distributed to betting shops across the country.

In April 2018, it was announced that At the Races would be relaunched as Sky Sports Racing by the end of the year, with wider availability and heavier integration with the remaining Sky Sports channels.[27]

PremPlus was a pay-per-view channel dedicated to airing live Premier League Football. PremPlus launched on 18 August 2001, showing 40 pay-per-view Premier League matches, the main presenter on PremPlus was Marcus Buckland with former Arsenal manager George Graham providing punditry. The channel was called Premiership Plus from 2001 to 2004, before being shortened to the later PremPlus for the beginning of the 2004–05 season. PremPlus closed down after the last match of the 2006–07 season after Setanta Sports obtained a third of the Premier League rights for 2007–10 This left Sky with only 92 live matches, meaning a Pay-Per-View service was unsustainable. An internet television service named Now TV was launched in 2012 offering a non-contract subscription to Sky Sports thus making the service a part spiritual successor to PremPlus.

Sky Sports News Radio was a British online radio station broadcasting sports news, results and information 24 hours a day. It is a sister service to the television channel Sky Sports News HQ.

The station was launched in June 2010 and broadcasts online and via digital platforms from the Teamtalk studios in Leeds, it originally broadcast from 08:00 to 18:00 only, expanding to a full 24-hour schedule in August 2010 to coincide with the start of the 2010–11 football season. The station was initially only available to Sky Sports subscribers, but became free to all listeners when its sister TV channel was removed from Freeview, the station can also be listened to via the Sky Sports Apps and third party platforms such as TuneIn Radio and The Pure Lounge.

News reports were sourced from the Sky Sports News newsroom, Sky News Radio and information was shared with SkySports.com, based in the same office. The station's managing editor was Mark Chesworth.

In July 2006, Sky Sports HD2 launched on Sky Digital channel 409, at the same time Sky Sports HD1 moved to channel 408, with Sky Sports News switching to channel 405. There was also a HD version of PremPlus, called PremPlus HD, which broadcast on Sky channel 483 until the football season ended, it was briefly branded Sky Sports HDX and used to broadcast other Sky Sports content in HD, before it ceased broadcasting.

Due to an Ofcom review of premium services, Sky Sports HD1 and HD2 launched on the Virgin Media platform on 2 August 2010, this marked the first time that Sky's HD programming was shown via a rival service. Smallworld Cable added Sky Sports HD1 and HD2 in the first quarter of 2012. UPC Ireland added Sky Sports 1 HD and 2 HD along with Sky Sports News HD on 16 August 2012.[29]

Sky Sports News HD launched on 23 August 2010, it was rebranded as Sky Sports News HQ HD on 12 August 2014 along with the standard channel.

On 1 March 2012, the HD channels were given a minor rebrand, with the 'HD' moving to the end of the channel names, for example Sky Sports 1 HD instead of Sky Sports HD1. Sky Sports F1 HD launched on 9 March 2012.[30]

Sky Sports 2 HD was also rebranded to 'Sky Sports Ashes HD' in the same move used for the standard channel on 30 June until 31 August 2013.[22] Sky Sports 4 HD was also rebranded to 'Sky Sports Ryder Cup HD' in the same move used for the standard channel on 18 September 2014 until 2 October 2014.

On Sunday 31 January 2010, the Arsenal vs. Manchester United game was shown in 3D in around 30 pubs around the UK. The special glasses were seen being tried by Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, and the commentators and the studio presenters mentioned of this being a world premiere live Sports 3D presentation several times.[34]

On 13 August 2016. Selected Sky Sports events became available to watch in UHD for the first time. 124 Premier League matches were broadcast in the 2016–17 season along with every race, qualifying session and practice in the 2017 Formula One season and England cricket'sTest match series against South Africa in summer 2017. Customers need to be Sky Q 2TB multiscreen customers who subscribe to Sky Sports pack in order to receive UHD broadcasts.[35]

It was widely reported that Sky used the West Ham United v Stoke City Premier League game on 31 August 2013 as an internal production test for broadcasting 4K / Ultra HD picture.

In the "Sky Views Blog", Barney Francis, managing director Sky Sports stated that, although it was only viewed internally, the test has been key in helping Sky evaluate whether it will start broadcasting in 4K.

"We saw enough in this test event to know that live sport in UHD has real potential. The broadcast also demonstrated the capability of our satellite platform, which is ideally placed to continue supporting high-bandwidth video."

"That said, we've still much more to learn, particularly about how to make full use of UHD from a live production perspective."[36]

Sky owns exclusive UK and Ireland, or UK-only exclusivity rights to a number of sports, most notably the ones listed below, they also transmit a large range of other sports. Some of the BSB's Sport Channel programming were The Football League, US Open tennis, and American football from the NFL.

Many of the BSB Sport Channel's rights packages, such as those for the FA Cup, Wimbledon and Test cricket, were acquired in tandem with the BBC.

For the 2016–17 to 2018–19 seasons, Sky Sports will show 126 live Premier League matches each season,[40] these games are played on Friday nights, Saturday lunchtimes, Sundays and Monday nights, for which Sky broadcasts the dedicated programmes Nissan Friday Night Football (FNF), Nissan Super Sunday and Bet365 Monday Night Football (MNF). Previously, games on Saturday late afternoon were broadcast as Saturday Night Football (SNF), although this slot passed to BT Sport.

David Jones is the presenter of Super Sunday and Monday Night Football, following the departure of former host Ed Chamberlin to ITV's horse racing coverage.[41]Simon Thomas also hosts live Premier League action on Saturday lunch times, under the banner Premier League Live. Friday night games were introduced by the Premier League for the 2016–17 season, and for this inaugural season Sky launched a new show, Friday Night Football, to broadcast these games. Rachel Riley and Jeff Stelling presented the show during 2016-17 season before Riley announced that she had left Sky Sports in May 2017.[42] In August 2017, Sky announced that Kelly Cates will take over as host.

Since the 2016-17 season, Sky Sports broadcasts a 3 pm Saturday match exclusively for subscribers in the Republic of Ireland. The coverage also goes out under the Premier League Live banner and is fronted by David Garrido.

Sky Sports broadcast two matches live per round in the EFL Cup, the two-legged semi-finals and the Final; a total of 15 live games per season with Simon Thomas and Kelly Cates hosting the action. The majority of presentation and commentators used are from the Premier League or EFL coverage. Martin Tyler and Gary Neville commentated on the 2018 final, with Kelly Cates presenting coverage alongside Thierry Henry, Jamie Redknapp and Craig Bellamy. Guy Havord and David Craig served as touchline reporters.

Sky share rights to the Scottish Professional Football League with BT Sport. Both broadcasters show 30 games per season, with Sky having first pick of matches including all Old Firm games shown live on Sky. Sky also show up to nine live Scottish Cup matches per season and share the rights with BBC Scotland, who show 5–8 matches per season, the Scottish Cup final is simulcast on both Sky Sports and BBC One Scotland. SPL Coverage is presented by Hayley McQueen. Lead commentary comes from Ian Crocker, while pundits/co-commentators are Andy Walker and Neil McCann.

Sky Sports also show live matches from La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights. Sky's La Liga deal is from the 2015/16 to the 2017/18 season and includes La Copa, the Spanish cup competition.[44][45] Sky broadcast at eight matches from each weekend of the season (both live and as-live) and is hosted by David Garrido and the commentators include Rob Palmer, Kevin Keatings, Jon Driscoll, Dominic Johnson, Gerry Armstrong and Terry Gibson. Highlights and weekly review of La Liga, are shown on Revista de La Liga, presented by the Spanish football expert Guillem Balagué,[46] from the 2018/19 season, Sky will lose the rights of the league to Eleven Sports.

In 2015, Sky Sports took over the UK TV rights for Major League Soccer, making it the exclusive home of the US top-tier division on UK TV,[47] the rights were previously held by BT Sport. The commentary is taken from the World Feed.

Sky Sports holds the rights to every home and away match featuring Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Wales and cover every other match in the European Qualifiers except the England match which is on ITV and one other qualifier per round which is on ITV4, under this Sky Sports have highlights of England matches. England Matches are commentated on by Martin Tyler & Alan Smith, Scotland by Ian Crocker & Davie Provan, Northern Ireland by Daniel Mann & Gerry Armstrong and Wales by Bill Leslie & Barry Horne. The Republic of Ireland gets commentary from Rob Hawthorne and Ray Houghton.

Launched in 1995, Soccer AM, is a Saturday morning talk show presented by John Fendley, ex-footballer Jimmy Bullard and comedian Lloyd Griffith, with a focus on humorous analysis of British football, largely but not exclusively based around the Premier League.

Launched in 1999, Sunday Supplement is a Sunday morning magazine style pundit show, presented by Neil Ashton since 2012. Originally Jimmy Hill's Sunday Supplement, but after a revamp in 2007, Hill was dropped.

Sky Sports first started broadcasting Home England Tests in 1999; in a joint deal with terrestrial broadcaster Channel 4, it began showing 1 home Test each summer plus one-day internationals (Channel 4 were the senior broadcast partner). This arrangement continued until 2006, when Sky Sports' flagship live coverage of England's home test series began, the previous year, it was announced by the ECB that it had awarded Sky exclusive coverage of all of England's home tests, one-day internationals and Twenty20 Internationals including the 2009 Ashes with highlights on Channel 5 produced by Sunset & Vine who produced Channel 4's coverage. The ECB have since renewed Sky Sports' deal until 2024 with BBC taking over the rights held by Channel 5 and picking up additional rights,[50] the Fifth Test vs India at the Oval, (commencing 15 August 2014) was the 200th England Test shown live on Sky Sports.

Overseas series involving England are presented either from the ground by David Gower or from a London studio by Ian Ward or Charles Colvile, the commentary team is largely unchanged from that used for England home series.

In 2003, Sky Sports began its coverage of the Heineken Cup, when it outbid the previous rights holder BBC Sport with its offer of £20 million for 3 years. Coverage of 10 matches each pool weekend and all knockout matches from the Heineken Cup was the norm. Additionally, up to three matches per round in the Amlin Challenge Cup were usually shown. Following the demise of the Heineken Cup, Sky Sports shared the rights to the newly formed Rugby Champions Cup with BT Sport, until the 2017–18 season. Sky exclusively broadcast up to 30 pool matches, 2 quarter-finals and 1 semi-final from each competition with the finals being shown by both. Sky also received first pick on Challenge Cup matches involving Premiership Rugby clubs.

In 2014, Sky Sports extended their already long-term deal with the RFU to continue showing England Internationals (outside of the Six Nations) exclusively live up until the end of the 2019–20 season. This includes their autumn test matches at Twickenham and their annual Spring fixture. Furthermore, Sky broadcast live England Saxons, under 18, under 20 & England Women. As a part of the deal with the RFU, Sky also has the rights to broadcast at least 11 games per season from the RFU Championship.

Sky also hold the rights to tour matches by England, Ireland and Scotland, to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand (as a part of their contract with SANZAAR) until 2018.

Commencing from the 2014–15 season, Sky Sports began showing games from the Pro14 (covering 30 matches alongside the current terrestrial broadcasters BBC Wales, S4C, TG4, BBC NI and BBC Alba). Furthermore, they broadcast two live matches each weekend from the Top 14. Sky's contract with SANZAR also allows them to show live matches from the Super Rugby competition.

The power of television over sport can perhaps be best portrayed by the change of rugby league from a winter sport to one played during the summer months under the banner of Super League, these changes caused great controversy when they were introduced in 1996, yet they have been seen by many[who?] as positive and as having an impact even greater than the broadcaster has had with football.

The sport is now seen as being in a healthy state with two or three live matches from the Super League every week fronted by 'Eddie and Stevo' – Eddie Hemmings and former Great BritainWorld Cup winner Mike Stephenson – who are a rare example of a dual studio-presentation and commentary-box partnership in sports broadcasting. Brian Carney and Jon Wells present parts of the pre-match build up and half time coverage. For the remaining pre-match coverage Eddie Hemmings is joined in the studio by two of Phil Clarke, Barrie McDermott, Terry O'Connor, Tony Rea, John Kear, Paul Cullen or Mike Stephenson . Eddie Hemmings, Phil Clarke and Stevo commentate on Super League matches, with an additional pundit (usually one of the above). Bill Arthur is the pitch-side reporter.

Live Super League broadcasts routinely rank amongst the top 10 most watched programmes in a week on Sky Sports. Sky has sold rights to a highlights package of the Super League to BBC Sport, who air The Super League Show on Sunday nights/Afternoon in Northern regions, with a nationwide replay on Monday afternoon.

Sky also held the rights to show the majority of the matches from the Four Nations and the previous competition the Tri Nations live, with the other games being shown live or in highlights form on BBC Sport and Sky Sports previously showed the 2008 World Cup exclusively live with only highlights on the BBC. This agreement ended in 2012 and Sky Sports surprisingly lost the rights to International Rugby League from the 2013 Rugby League World Cup to the BBC and Premier Sports, the matches for the 2013 and 2017 Rugby League World Cup are being shared between the BBC and Premier Sports with BBC covering all England matches, Wales v Italy, One Quarter Final, One Semi-final and the Final in 2013. The BBC & Premier Sports have also signed a deal to cover the 2014 and 2016 Four Nations.

Beginning in 2012, the channel airs Challenge Cup matches alongside the BBC: usually, they will air one match in the fourth and fifth rounds and two of the quarter-finals with highlights of the Semi-Finals and Finals which are exclusively live on the BBC. Rod Studd and Bill Arthur are the main commentators for these matches, with Carney, Clarke, Jon Wells and Graham Beecroft as summarisers/reporters, until 2012, Sky aired Championship and Northern Rail Cup games on Thursdays and Sundays, until the rights for these were purchased by Premier Sports.

They also broadcast a weekly midweek rugby league magazine show, Boots N' All, during the season; Super League's Super Men, an interview show with legends of the game hosted by Brian Carney and Sam Tomkins; the Sunday night roundup show Super League Full Time, and a half-hour summary of the weekend's Super League matches on Sky Sports News on Sundays presented by Martin Offiah. In addition, during the summer Super League Back Chat, usually a roundtable vodcast starring Stephenson, Studd and a rotating panel of rugby league journalists, is promoted to the regular TV schedule.

In July 2011, Sky Sports acquired joint rights to broadcast Formula One in the United Kingdom from 2012 until 2018,[53] the deal included the rights to show all practice and qualifying sessions, in addition to the races. The joint broadcast rights were held by BBC but transferred to Channel 4 from the 2016 season. The shared nature of the contract means that Sky Sports F1 show all races live, with 10 races being shown by both Sky and Channel 4 (who are also televising highlights of all races on a delayed basis).[54][55] Whilst the initial announcement did prove controversial (with early promises that the races wouldn't be uninterrupted by commercials[56] doing little to quell the negative initial reaction from many fans and observers[57]), in its first two years of broadcasting, the coverage has twice won F1 International Broadcaster of the Year from the FIA (in 2012 & 2013).

Sky Sports F1 currently broadcast the entire 2018 season in 4K Ultra-HD, on the Sky Q Silver Ultra-HD package.

Sky Sports has exclusive UK rights for the US Open[60], The Open Championship and the Masters Tournament.[60] From 2011 Sky have broadcast all four days of the Masters in High Definition and 3D, as well as the Par 3 Tournament.[61] BBC Sport broadcast the final two rounds simultaneously with Sky,[62] they also grabbed the rights for The Open Championship which the BBC had shown live from the 1950s, Sky outbid the BBC and rebranded Sky Sports 1 as Sky Sports The Open for the tournament with the BBC only showing 2-hour highlights each day on BBC Two and live coverage on BBC Radio 5 Live. Sky additionally showed the US PGA from 1992 until 2017, but after negotiations broke down in 2017, the BBC claimed the tournament.[63]

Since its inception in 1999, Sky Sports has broadcast the World Golf Championships exclusively live, with the exception of the 2001 WGC-American Express Championship, which was broadcast on the BBC. They usually present the broadcast on site, as they do for major championships and the Ryder Cup, reflecting their importance in the game as the next most important series of events after the majors.

Sky also have exclusive live UK rights to broadcast the PGA Tour (until 2017) including The Players Championship and PGA Tour Playoffs for the FedEx Cup. Sky were the exclusive UK broadcasters of the PGA Tour from 1993 to 2006 until Setanta Sports bought the rights in 2007, the Irish subscription network went into administration midway through the 2009 season and the rights for the remainder of the season were awarded to Eurosport.

Sky Sports shows live coverage of the sport's premier event, the Ryder Cup, since 1995, they have held the exclusive live UK rights to the biennial team event between USA and Europe, broadcasting the event in its entirety for the first time at Oak Hill in 1995. The event was broadcast in High Definition for the first time in 2006 at the K Club in County Kildare Ireland, since 1999 it has also offered interactive coverage with options including the American coverage, Highlights and course guides. Sky holds the rights until 2012, with BBC broadcasting evening highlights; in 2010, Sky broadcast the Ryder Cup in 3D, making it the first live event on Sky 3D, Europe's first residential 3D channel.[64]

Sky Sports covered some BDO Tournaments during its inception including the 1992 Winmau World Masters which was previously broadcast on ITV, since the creation of the World Darts Council in 1992, since renamed the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC), formed when many of the leading darts players, including Phil Taylor, Eric Bristow, John Lowe and Dennis Priestley, broke away from the British Darts Organisation (BDO), the game's then sole ruling body, Sky Sports has broadcast the new organisation's main darts tournaments live, which currently includes the following. Between 1993 and 2007 Sky were the only regular UK broadcaster of PDC Darts (apart from the 1999 BDO v PDC showdown between Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld which was broadcast on ITV), however this changed in 2007 when ITV covered the PDC/BDO tournament the Grand Slam of Darts, this moved to Sky in 2011 however ITV continued to show the European Championship and Players Championship Finals, their coverage expanded in 2014 to cover the UK Open and the Masters.

Sky Sports Darts coverage was initially presented by Jeff Stelling with Eric Bristow and commentary by John Gwynne and Dave Lanning while Sid Waddell joined Sky from the BBC in 1994. Dave Clark replaced Stelling in 2002 although covered some tournaments in 2001, Pyke joined the commentary team in 2003, Rod Harrington and Nigel Pearson joined in 2005, Rod Studd joined in 2008 and former BBC Darts commentators David Croft and John Part joined in 2013. David Croft only works for Sky Sports Darts on the PDC World Darts Championship and some weeks of the Premier League Darts and Stuart Pyke also works for ITV coverage of PDC Darts.

Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Sport enjoys an exclusive television deal with Sky Sports through 2021 and provides Sky Sports with upwards of 20 boxing events per year.[66] Some of the coverage is shown on a pay-per-view basis via Sky Sports Box Office. A number of former boxing world champions are part of Sky's coverage, including Johnny Nelson, Carl Froch and Glenn McCrory. Anna Woolhouse is the lead presenter, with the likes of Paul Smith and Matthew Macklin, the main commentators are Andy Clarke and Adam Smith, with input from the likes of Nelson, Froch and McCrory, as well as reports by Andy Scott.

In 1989, Sky acquired the rights to WWE. Sky Sports Arena is considered the home of WWE programming on Sky, as the majority of the programmes are shown on it.

Part of the current deal with Sky states that major PPV's such as WrestleMania, Survivor Series, the Royal Rumble and SummerSlam are part of the Sky Sports Box Office pay-per-view service, and that SmackDown's first broadcast moved from Sky One to Sky Sports. As part of the deal, Raw is now shown live on Sky Sports Arena early Tuesday morning because of the time difference, as of 19 July 2016, SmackDown! is broadcast live early Wednesday morning for the same reason.

Sky also broadcast WWE's third brand, ECW on Sci Fi before it was cancelled, for a couple of months it replaced WWE Velocity on Sunday mornings. It is shown two nights after the US broadcast after a viewer complained to Ofcom in August 2006 about an image in the opening credits, and Sky agreed to air the program after the watershed.

The deal of 14 Pay-Per-Views did not account for WWE's extra pay-per-views which have been added subsequently, and therefore WWE Cyber Sunday would not have been picked up by Sky. However, a last-minute deal was struck between Sky and WWE, that allowed the PPV to be shown live on Sky Sports 1.[67]

The first WWE event to be shown in wide-screen (16:9) format on Sky Sports was No Way Out on 18 February 2008 at 1 am on Sky Sports 1. Although after this, other WWE programming were still in standard (4:3) format however due to complaints all WWE programming will now be airing in widescreen from a down-scaled HD feed.

On 30 January 2014, Sky Sports announced they had signed another five-year deal with WWE. Sky will now continue to exclusively broadcast WWE's flagship shows in the UK and Ireland through to 2019.[68]

WWE pay-per-views were previously shown on Sky Sports for free roughly every 5 months, with all remaining pay-per-views being broadcast on Sky Sports Box Office at an additional cost. However, as of 2015, all pay-per-views were broadcast on Sky Sports Box Office at a cost of £19.95.

The following list excludes WWE pay-per-view events where a minority are broadcast on Sky Sports while the rest are broadcast on Sky Sports Box Office at an additional cost of £19.95 (€24.95 in Ireland) per event.

On 2 April 2014, Sky Sports signed a deal with the Gaelic Athletic Association to broadcast both the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship.[69] The deal gives Sky Sports 20 championship matches across both sports including both semi-finals and both All-Ireland Finals. Sky will have exclusive rights in both the Republic of Ireland and the UK to 14 of these matches with the remaining 6 matches being simultaneously broadcast by RTÉ in the Republic of Ireland, the deal covers the years, 2014 to 2016. It is estimated that the GAA make €0.5 million from this deal. The deal has sparked much debate in Ireland with many loyal fans being unable to watch some key games during the All- Ireland season, the debate was reignited with Michael Duignan stating publicly on RTE, "The biggest disgrace of the weekend was on Saturday evening, that Waterford and Kilkenny (Round 2 hurling match) wasn't shown free-to-air in this country", a statement which resounded with many GAA fans across Ireland and gained much public sympathy, bringing further into question the continuation of the Sky GAA deal in the long term.[70]

Sky Sports covered the Champions League between 2003 and 2015 but in 2013 Sky was outbid by BT Sport and the rights transferred at the end of the 2014/15 tournament.[93] with highlights on ITV Sport.

Sky Sports covered the FA Cup since it first went on air as BSB's Sports Channel in 1990 alongside the BBC but has not broadcast the FA Cup since 2008 after both broadcasters were outbid by ITV and Setanta, after the collapse of Setanta Sky did not bid for the rights and went to ESPN UK; in 2014–15 the rights transferred from ITV/ESPN to BBC and BT Sport after bidding together.

Sky Sports had been the first channel to show the Community Shield live and as with the FA Cup, Sky has not broadcast this event since 2011 after rights transferred to ITV and then BT Sport.

One of Sky's first major live football rights deal was exclusive live coverage of the England football team and held these rights throughout the 1990s, the live rights transferred to BBC Sport in 2001–2008 and remain free to air on ITV now with Sky covering England Friendlies & highlights of qualifiers.

Sky Sports was the first channel to show live rugby union every week when it picked up the rights to show the top division of England club rugby in the mid 1990s. The rights transferred to ESPN in 2009 and the league is now covered by BT Sport. Sky Sports also covered England matches from the 5/6 nations from 1997 to 2002 as well as France v England with all other matches being live on the BBC, the rights were sold to the BBC in 2003 and they covered every match live from the 6 Nations until 2015 when BBC and ITV teamed up to keep the rights free to air after the BBC were outbid by Sky Sports with BBC covering France, Wales & Scotland home matches and ITV covering England, Ireland & Italy.

Sky Sports was the main broadcaster of the US Open until 2015 but decided not to renew its contract to broadcast this event in 2016 because of overspending on Premier League Rights, Sky also previously covered Davis Cup tennis but these rights moved to the BBC and Eurosport.[95]

In 2006, Sky Sports began showing a replay from a match in the Elite Ice Hockey League every week. Due to large audience numbers, even though it is normally on Sky Sports 4, they decided to show a live game for the first time in several years when they showed the play-off finals in 2010. A new deal was signed for the 2010/11 season in which Sky agreed to show eight live games throughout the season and a weekly highlights show. However, the broadcast rights have since moved to Premier Sports.

1.
Sky plc
–
Sky plc is a British satellite broadcasting, on-demand internet streaming media, broadband and telephone services company with headquarters in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Sky is Europes biggest and leading media company and largest pay-TV broadcaster, with 21 million subscribers and 30,000 employees as of 2015. Initially formed in 1990 by the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting. In 2014, after completing the acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, Sky is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It had a capitalisation of approximately £18.75 billion as of 2015. Rupert Murdochs 21st Century Fox owns a 39.14 per cent controlling stake in the company, British Sky Broadcasting was formed by the merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting on 2 November 1990. Both companies had begun to struggle financially and were suffering financial losses as both competed against each other for viewers. The Guardian later characterised the merger as effectively a takeover by News Corporation, on 17 November, the IBA decided to terminate BSBs contract, but not immediately, as it was deemed unfair to 120,000 viewers who had bought BSB devices. Sam Chisholm was appointed CEO in a bid to reorganise the new company, in April the nine Sky/BSB channels had been condensed into five, with EuroSport being dropped soon after the Sky Sports launch. Chisholm also renegotiated the merged companys expensive deals with the Hollywood studios, News International received 50%, Pearson PLC17. 5%, Chargeurs 17. 5%, Granada 12%, Reed International 2% of the new shares in the company. Many of the lessons had been learnt with more than half the running cost of the combined company, further cuts in losses were a direct result of 313,000 new customers joining during the first half of 1991. James Capel forecast BSkyB would still be indebted in 2000, in the autumn of 1991, talks were held for the broadcast rights for Premier League for a five-year period, from the 1992 season. ITV were the current rights holders, and fought hard to retain the new rights, ITV had increased its offer from £18m to £34m per year to keep control of the rights. BSkyB joined forces with the BBC to make a counter bid, Murdoch has described sport as a battering ram for pay-television, providing a strong customer base. A few weeks after the deal, ITV went to the High court to get an injunction as it believed their details were leaked before the decision was taken. ITV also asked the Office of Fair Trading to also investigate since it believed Rupert Murdochs media empire via the newspapers had influence the deal. A few days later neither action took effect, ITV believed BSkyB was telephoned and informed of its £262m bid, and Premier League advised BSkyB to increase its counter bid. BSkyB retained the rights paying £670m 1997–2001 deal, but was challenged by On Digital for the rights from 2001–2004, in May 2006, the Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports was awarded two of the six Premiership packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters

2.
576i
–
576i is a standard-definition video mode originally used for broadcast television in most countries of the world where the utility frequency for electric power distribution is 50 Hz. Because of its association with the colour encoding system, it is often referred to as simply PAL, PAL/SECAM or SECAM when compared to its 60 Hz NTSC-colour-encoded counterpart. The 576 identifies a vertical resolution of 576 lines, and the i identifies it as an interlaced resolution and its basic parameters common to both analogue and digital implementations are,576 scan lines or vertical pixels of picture content,25 frames per second. Digital information not to be displayed as part of the image can be transmitted in the lines, teletext and other services. Analogue television signals have no pixels, they are rastered in scan lines, in digital applications, the number of pixels per line is an arbitrary choice as long as it fulfils the sampling theorem. Values above about 500 pixels per line are enough for conventional broadcast television, DVB-T, DVD and DV allow better values such as 704 or 720. The video format can be transported by major digital television formats, ATSC, DVB and ISDB, and on DVD, when 576i video is transmitted via baseband, most of the differences between the one-letter systems are no longer significant, other than vertical resolution and frame rate. Digital video uses its own separate space, so even the minor colour space differences between PAL and SECAM become moot in the digital domain. When 576i is used to transmit content that was composed of 25 full progressive frames per second. This is the opposite of NTSC, motion pictures are typically shot on film at 24 frames per second. When telecined and played back at PALs standard of 25 frames per second and this also applies to most TV series that are shot on film or digital 24p. Depending on the system in use, it also slightly increases the pitch of the soundtrack by 70.67 cents. More recently, digital conversion methods have used algorithms which preserve the pitch of the soundtrack. Conversion methods exist that can convert 24 frames per second video to 25 frames per second with no speed increase, however image quality suffers when conversions of this type are used. This method is most commonly employed through conversions done digitally, and is employed in situations where the importance of preserving the speed of the video outweighs the need for image quality. Many movie enthusiasts prefer PAL over NTSC despite the formers speed-up, because the results in telecine judder. States the majority of authorities on the subject favour PAL over NTSC for DVD playback quality, also DVD reviewers often make mention of this cause. For example, in his PAL vs. NTSC article, the founder of MichaelDVD says, Personally, I find all but intolerable and find it very hard to watch a movie on an NTSC DVD because of it

3.
1080i
–
1080i is an abbreviation referring to a combination of frame resolution and scan type, used in high-definition television and high-definition video. The number 1080 refers to the number of lines on the screen. The term assumes a widescreen ratio of 16,9, so the 1080 lines of vertical resolution implies 1920 columns of horizontal resolution. A1920 pixels ×1080 lines screen has a total of 2.1 megapixels and this format is used in the SMPTE 292M standard. The choice of 1080 lines originates with Charles Poynton, who in the early 1990s pushed for square pixels to be used in HD video formats, within the designation 1080i, the i stands for interlaced scan. A frame of 1080i video consists of two fields of 1920 horizontal and 540 vertical pixels. The first field consists of all odd-numbered TV lines and the second all even numbered lines, 1080i differs from 1080p, where the p stands for progressive scan, where all lines in a frame are captured at the same time. In native or pure 1080i, the two fields of a frame correspond to different instants, so motion portrayal is good and this is true for interlaced video in general and can be easily observed in still images taken of fast motion scenes. However, when 1080p material is captured at 25 or 30 frames/second, it is converted to 1080i at 50 or 60 fields/second, respectively, in this situation both fields in a frame do correspond to the same instant. The field-to-instant relation is more complex for the case of 1080p at 24 frames/second converted to 1080i at 60 fields/second. Both field rates can be carried by digital television broadcast formats such as ATSC, DVB. The frame rate can be implied by the context, while the rate is generally specified after the letter i. In this case 1080i60 refers to 60 fields per second, the European Broadcasting Union prefers to use the resolution and frame rate separated by a slash, as in 1080i/30 and 1080i/25, likewise 480i/30 and 576i/25. Resolutions of 1080i60 or 1080i50 often refers to 1080i/30 or 1080i/25 in EBU notation, 1080i is directly compatible with some CRT HDTVs on which it can be displayed natively in interlaced form, but for display on progressive-scan—e. g. Most new LCD and plasma TVs, it must be deinterlaced, depending on the televisions video processing capabilities, the resulting video quality may vary, but may not necessarily suffer. For example, film material at 25fps may be deinterlaced from 1080i50 to restore a full 1080p resolution at the frame rate without any loss. Preferably video material with 50 or 60 motion phases/second is to be converted to 50p or 60p before display, worldwide, most HD channels on satellite and cable broadcast in 1080i. This also allows local newscasts on these ABC affiliates to be produced in the resolution to match the picture quality of their 1080i competitors

4.
4K resolution
–
4K resolution, also called 4K, refers to a horizontal resolution on the order of 4,000 pixels and vertical resolution on the order of 2,000 pixels. Several 4K resolutions exist in the fields of television and digital cinematography. In the movie industry, Digital Cinema Initiatives is the dominant 4K standard. In television and consumer media, 4K UHD or UHD-1 is the dominant 4K standard, by 2015, 4K television market share had increased greatly as prices fell dramatically during 2014 and 2015. By 2025, more than half of U. S. households are expected to have a 4K-capable TV, the name 4K resolution refers to a horizontal resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. The use of width to characterize the overall resolution marks a switch from previous television standards such as 480i and 1080p, using that same convention, 4K UHD would be named 2160p. There are two main 4K resolution standards, The DCI 4K resolution standard, which has a resolution of 4096 ×2160 pixels and this standard is widely respected by the film and video production industry. The DCI 4K standard has twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of DCI 2K, UHD-1, or ultra-high-definition television, is the 4K standard for television and computer monitors. UHD-1 is also called 2160p since it has twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of 1080p and it has a resolution of 3840 ×2160. UHD-1 is used in television and other media, e. g. video games. Many manufacturers may advertise their products as UHD 4K, or simply 4K and this often causes great confusion among consumers. YouTube and the industry have adopted UHD-1 as their 4K standard. As of 2014, 4K content from major broadcasters remains limited, the channel is licensed by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to provide educational content. However, 4K content is becoming widely available online including on YouTube, Netflix. By 2013, some UHDTV models were available to consumers in the range of US$600. As of 2015, prices on smaller computer and television panels had dropped below US$400, DVB expects UHD-1 Phase 2 services to be introduced by broadcasters from 2017, with features such as High Dynamic Range, Wide Color Gamut, and High Frame Rate. The first commercially available 4K camera for cinematographic purposes was the Dalsa Origin, YouTube began supporting 4K for video uploads in 2010 as a result of leading manufacturers producing 4K cameras. Users could view 4K video by selecting Original from the quality settings until December 2013, the projection of movies at 4K resolution at cinemas began in 2011

5.
Ultra-high-definition television
–
From just 30 in Q32015, the forum published a list up to 55 commercial services available around the world offering 4K resolution. Ultra-high-definition television is also known as Ultra HD, UHD, in Japan, 8K UHDTV will be known as Super Hi-Vision since Hi-Vision was the term used in Japan for HDTV. In the consumer electronics market companies had only used the term 4K at the 2012 CES. Two resolutions are defined as UHDTV, 4K UHDTV is 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels tall, NHK advocates the 8K UHDTV format with 22.2 surround sound as Super Hi-Vision. The human visual system has an ability to discern improvements in resolution when picture elements are already small enough or distant enough from the viewer. UHDTV, however, allows other image enhancements than pixel density, specifically, dynamic range and color are greatly enhanced, and these impact saturation and contrast differences that are readily resolved and greatly improve the experience of 4KTV compared to HDTV. UHDTV allows the use of the new Rec.2020 color space which can reproduce colors that cannot be shown with the current Rec.709 color space. UHDTVs increases in dynamic range allow not only brighter highlights but also increased detail in the greyscale, UHDTV also allows for frame rates up to 120 frames per second. 2020, higher range, and higher frame rates to work on HD services without increasing resolution to 4K. NHK researchers built a UHDTV prototype which they demonstrated in 2003 and they used an array of 16 HDTV recorders with a total capacity of almost 3.5 TB that could capture up to 18 minutes of test footage. The camera itself was built with four 2.5 inch CCDs, using two CCDs for green and one each for red and blue, they then used a spatial pixel offset method to bring it to 7680x4320. A review of the NAB2006 demo was published in a Broadcast Engineering e-newsletter, individuals at NHK and elsewhere project that the timeframe for UHDTV to be available in domestic homes varies between 2015 and 2020 but Japan may get it in the 2016 time frame. On November 2,2006, NHK demonstrated a live relay of a UHDTV program over a 260 kilometer distance by a fiber-optic network, using dense wavelength division multiplex, 24 Gbit/s speed was achieved with a total of 16 different wavelength signals. On December 31,2006, NHK demonstrated a live relay of their annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen over IP from Tokyo to a 450 in screen in Osaka. Using a codec developed by NHK, the video was compressed from 24 Gbit/s to 180–600 Mbit/s, uncompressed, a 20-minute broadcast would require roughly 4 TB of storage. The SMPTE first released Standard 2036 for UHDTV in 2007, UHDTV was defined as having two levels called UHDTV1 and UHDTV2. In May 2007, the NHK did a demonstration at the NHK Open House in which a UHDTV signal was compressed to a 250 Mbit/s MPEG2 stream. The signal was input to a 300 MHz wide band modulator and this on the air transmission had a very limited range, but shows the feasibility of a satellite transmission in the 36,000 km orbit

6.
Challenge (TV channel)
–
Challenge is a British digital television channel owned by Sky plc. The channel mostly transmits game shows from the UK and around the world, in June 1993, prior to its launch, IFE sold a 39% stake in the channel to Flextech. The Family Channel did produce some UK original programming, but heavily relied upon content from MTM and TVSs archives and it was claimed that the channel produced more original series worldwide than any other cable or satellite network. In April 1996, IFE sold its remaining 61% share to Flextech, giving them ownership of the venture. The deal did not include any of the archive which included many TVS game shows, such as Catchphrase and All Clued Up. Flextech planned to re-launch the channel as Challenge during the autumn of 1996, with daytime targeted towards housewives, instead, The Family Channel began transitioning to the new brand by introducing a weekend game show strand known as Family Challenge Weekend. On 3 February 1997, The Family Channel re-branded as Challenge TV, from 3 February 1997 to the end of 1998, between 00,30 and 06,00, the channel was branded as Family Late, which continued to air its previous entertainment programming. On 7 April 2009, Virgin Media, the current owner. On 13 July 2010, Sky and Virgin Media announced that Sky had completed the acquisition of Virgin Media Television following regulatory approval in the Republic of Ireland. On 15 September 2010, Sky announced a number of its sister channels Bravo, Bravo 2 and Channel One, were closed, on 25 January 2011, it was confirmed that Total Nonstop Action Wrestling programming would start broadcasting on Challenge from 3 February 2011. On 1 February 2011, Challenge replaced Channel Ones Freeview space on the Freeview multiplex, on 23 June 2016, the channel went through another revamp, discarding the Challengers and introducing a new logo which features a segmented C. Bullseyes You cant beat a bit of Bully and Robot Wars 3.2.1, bumpers framing breaks sometimes also include general knowledge questions or rebuses, referencing shows like Blockbusters and Catchphrase. The channel also aired some poker game shows including World Poker Tour, Celebrity Blackjack and it also launched a very short-lived spin-off channel in 2006, Player, which mainly focused on the poker-related programming that Challenge had transmitted. Challenge only aired programmes in the format, but on 3 June 2008. This was coupled with a logo and a new set of idents. Challenge have had various programming blocks, for example, Fully Loaded, a former morning programming block from around 2007 which consisted of Win, Lose or Draw, Wheel of Fortune, Catchphrase, Bullseye and Family Fortunes. Although the bulk of Challenges schedule consists of shows, the channel also broadcasts some other entertainment programming. As of January 2017, however, they no longer be broadcasting any TNA programming

7.
Pick (TV channel)
–
Pick is a British television channel, available via Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media. The channel was launched in 2005 as Sky Three. From its launch on 1 November 2005 until 24 June 2010, the channel also showed seasons 3 and 4 of Prison Break in 2010. In recent years, the number of well known Sky 1 shows being shown on Pick TV has declined, the number of American shows airing on the channel has declined rapidly, with Prison Break the last major US Sky 1 drama to be shown on the channel in 2010. Since its rebrand to Pick TV, recent Sky 1 shows such as UK Border Force, Pineapple Dance Studios and documentary series hosted by Ross Kemp such as gangs, on 1 February 2011, Sky Atlantic launched on Sky channel 108, which had originally been occupied by Sky3. Sky rebranded Sky3 as Pick TV on 28 February 2011, on Monday 7 October 2013, Pick TV became Pick introducing a new look and logo for the channel. On 28 June 2016, another new logo was announced which included a brand new look. In May 2012, Pick TV started broadcasting some older Sky 1 and Sky Living, Sky Three was the first free-to-air general entertainment channel from Sky. It launched on 1 November 2005, replacing the Sky Travels EPG slot on Freeview in a bid to attract subscribers to Skys satellite service. Due to its availability on Freeview channel 11, the channel constantly had higher ratings than Sky 2 where Sky3 was achieving on average a 1% share compared to Sky 2s 0. 1-3% share. Instead of Sky selling on the terrestrial free-to-air rights for their programmes to another broadcaster, in 2008, Skys entertainment channels changed the wording in the logos to numbers, hence Sky Three became Sky3. On 23 August 2010, Sky Sports News became a pay-TV channel, Sky3 +1 also launched on Sky channel 223 on the same day. A final rebrand took place in early 2011 and saw Sky 1,2 and 3 gain similar rectangular logos to Sky News, the channel was rebranded as Pick TV on 28 February 2011. Only the name was changed, as the channel retained the look of the most recent rebrand which occurred a few weeks earlier, the launch of Challenge saw quiz and gameshow type programming move off Pick TV. On 20 September 2011 at 14,00, Pick TV +1 was removed from Freeview. This was so all of the channels owned by BSkyB could be on multiplex C and Challenge could broadcast for 24 hours a day in Wales on the platform. On 7 October 2013, Pick TV was rebranded as Pick on Freeview, on 23 June 2016, Pick and Challenge were rebranded with entirely new looks. Sky showed a second Free Weekend Pass event on 17–18 April 2010, the event has not been repeated since Sky3 rebranded as Pick TV

8.
Real Lives (TV channel)
–
Real Lives is a British television channel owned by Sky plc. It is the channel of Sky Living. It was originally known as LIVINGtv2 from the launch in 2004 till 2007. The channel mainly shows highlights of programming from the channel, along with extended coverage of its reality programmes, such as Im Famous and Frightened Extra. However, the channel has gained the American reality TV series, the channel has also shown more lifestyle and health related programmes such as Baby ER, Birth Stories, Downsize Me and Wedding SOS. Every morning from 10am to 12pm, there used to be a slot called Baby Zone, in which programmes related to pregnancy. Programmes included Birth Days, Maternity Ward and Babies, Special Delivery, a one-hour timeshift version of the channel launched on 5 February 2009, replacing Trouble +1. Living2 was rebranded as Livingit on 30 November 2009, following problems making viewers understand that the channel is not a version of the main channel. The relaunch was accompanied by new programming under the strapline Lifes worth watching and it was announced on 25 October 2010, that Living would be rebranded as Sky Living in early 2011 and move EPG positions on Sky from channel 112 to 107 after Sky 1 and before Sky Atlantic. As part of the move Livingit was rebranded as Sky Livingit. Upon the launch of drama channel ITV Encore, on 3 June 2014, it moved to EPG slot 222 on Sky, on 9 June 2015, Sky Livingit was rebranded as Real Lives, moving to slot 172 on Sky. Sky Living at sky. com Press release of the launch Americas Psychic Challenge on Living2 The TV Room looks at presentation/branding on Living 2

9.
Sky One
–
Sky 1 is the British flagship channel operated and owned by Sky plc. It is the entertainment channel operated in the United Kingdom. Sky 1 launched across Europe on 26 April 1982 by founder Connor Baskey as Satellite Television and is the oldest non-terrestrial TV channel in the United Kingdom. In the UK, the channel is available via satellite on Sky, digital cable on Virgin Media, IPTV on TalkTalk TV. In Ireland, the channel is available via Sky Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, on 27 June 1983, the shareholders of Satellite Television agreed a £5 million offer to give News International 65% of the company. Murdoch extended the broadcast hours and the number of countries the station broadcast to including the United Kingdom, on 16 January 1984 the channel was renamed Sky Channel. On 8 June 1988, Murdoch announced his plans to expand Skys service to four channels, the show had a mix of entertainment, gossip, fashion, etc. The Channel continued with the childrens programmes, soaps, and US action series. On 31 July 1989, the channel was renamed Sky One and closed in most European countries, broadcasting to only the United Kingdom, in 1990 Sky One begin to acquire more recent programming, an early success being Moonlighting, which the BBC had previously screened but not repeated. Sky One also picked new programming such as The Simpsons,21 Jump Street and the last series of Falcon Crest, the channel also commissioned a number of home grown programmes while also expanding its Australian television series to include E Street, Chances and Paradise Beach. In contrast to the Sky2 that was relaunched, this channel featured even more first-run programmes. In 2000, a feed of Sky One for Ireland was launched. For most of this Irish feeds existence, the difference between it and the United Kingdom feed has been differing commercials and programme promotions. In June 2003, the channel started broadcasting in 16,9 widescreen, however, all TV commercials were broadcast in 4,3 until November 2005, because they were played off the same servers for all Sky channels, many of which were not broadcast in widescreen. On 21 September 2004, Sky One Mix was subsequently renamed Sky Mix, on 31 October 2005, Sky Mix was renamed as Sky Two with the launch of a second sister channel Sky Three. An on-screen message instead appears redirecting viewers to Sky 1, to coincide with launch of Sky HD, Sky 1 HD began broadcasting on 22 May 2006. Programmes that are not available in HD are upscaled, a new Sky 1 HD logo was introduced along with the rebrand on 31 August 2008. On 1 October 2010, Sky 1 HD launched on Virgin Media channel 122, with Sky 2 moving to channel 123 and Sky 3 moving to channel 180 on 22 September 2010, to make way for the new channel

10.
Sky Two
–
Sky 2 is a British television channel originally launched in September 1996 and relaunched in December 2002. For an opening night it held an X-Files theme night, while the channel was still being broadcast, Sky One was branded as Sky 1. Unlike the later Sky One spin-off, Sky One Mix, the channel showed exclusive first-run television shows rather than the programming as its parent. Prominent shows on its schedule included Xena, Warrior Princess, Profit, TekWar, Sky used the launch of the channel and the rebrand of Sky 1 to introduce DOGs, on both channels. While at some points the channel reached viewing figures nearly equal to that of its sister channel and it was eventually closed the following year along with Granada Talk TV following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Sky One Mix originally launched on 9 December 2002 as Sky Ones sister channel, Sky One Mix was rebranded as Sky Mix in 2004. This branded-name was short lived, because in 2005, it was rebranded as Sky Two and it was rebranded as Sky 2 on 31 August 2008, when Skys entertainment channels rebranded into the solids, liquids and particles theme. On 1 February 2011, Sky refreshed the presentation on many of its channels, Sky 2s idents follow the same themes as Sky 1s new idents, but feature a smaller metal 2 icon, and the action is in close-up. Sky 2 carries some programming from Sky Travel and Sky Vegas, Sky 2s programming mostly features sci-fi programming such as Futurama, the Stargate franchise and Star Trek, Enterprise. However, other Sky 1 drama shows such as Bones, documentary strands such as Road Wars, Street Wars, like Sky 3, Sky 2 did not feature repeat episodes of The Simpsons, until recently where it has started to air at 8pm daily. Sky 2 is essentially a service for Skys main entertainment channel Sky 1. Sky currently broadcast a version of one of their entertainment channels, Sky 3. On 12 November 2012, Sky launched a 1-hour timeshift of Sky 1, Sky 2s programming showcases the best of Sky 1s content and a mix of sci-fi, action and factual programmes targeting young men. Shows Sky 2 used to air include Melrose Place, The Late Show with David Letterman, at midnight, Sky Two was removed, and the name of the station in the electronic programming guide was changed to Old Sky Two Try Living on the analogue cable service. From 10 May 2010, Sky 2 carried an hour timeshift of programming on Sky 1, Sky 2 will, however, remain a standalone offering. A Sky spokesperson said, We are experimenting with different channel schedules to bring value to our customers. Particular programmes which werent shown an hour later included the premier of Sky 1s Terry Pratchetts Going Postal, also not seen on a timeshift basis was the final ever episode of Lost which was aired at 5am, as it was simultaneously being broadcast in the US. The last ever episodes of 24 also werent shown an hour later on Sky 2, Terry Pratchetts Going Postal would be shown later in the week with both Lost and 24 being shown on Sky 2 after the final credits rolled on Sky 1

11.
Sky Arts
–
Sky Arts is an art-oriented television channel offering 24 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music. Sky Arts HD is also available on Sky, Virgin Media, in its early days, it was owned and managed by a public partnership including Sir Jeremy Isaacs. However, the channel suffered severe financial difficulty, in July 2002, it even staged its own farewell party, only to find emergency funding that very evening. In 2003, with a staff, it was facing closure. At this point, Sky stepped in, taking an initial 50% stake, Sky subsequently bought out the remaining shareholders and in June 2005 took full control, reducing the staff further, and dropping the channels premium subscription fee shortly afterwards. 60 hours of music along with seven full-length operas were broadcast each month to help bring in potential new subscribers. John Cassy, the manager of Artsworld, said, It is great news for the arts that a dedicated cultural channel will be available to millions of households. On 1 March 2007, Artsworld became Sky Arts and Artsworld HD became Sky Arts HD and this resulted in all of BSkyBs wholly owned channels carrying the Sky name. From 8 June 2007, Sky Arts introduced a series called Friday Night Hijack, artists were invited to schedule a night of television that reflects their tastes, interests and passions. Guests included legendary punk DJ Don Letts, Don McCullin, Saffron Burrows, Anthony Horowitz, Malcolm McLaren, Phill Jupitus, Germaine Greer, George Melly and this weekly feature was later moved and renamed as Sunday Night Hijack. Queen concerts and documentaries also air frequently on Sky Arts 1, in 2013 Sky Arts launched a painting competition series Portrait Artist of the Year presented by Frank Skinner and Joan Bakewell. The series is judged by art experts Tai-Shan Schierenberg, Kathleen Soriano, nick Lord won the first series and was awarded a commission to paint Hilary Mantel for the British Library. In 2014 the second series was won by Christian Hook and his portrait of Alan Cumming is now part of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery collection, in 2015 Sky Arts introduced a development of the competition for landscape painters called Landscape Artist of the Year in association with National Trust. The first series was won by Nerine McIntyre and she was awarded a commission to paint the scene made famous by John Constable at Flatford, on 9 June 2015, Sky Arts 2 closed and merged its content with Sky Arts 1 to form one channel. Sky Arts focused on the modern and independent side of Sky Arts programming. Schedules included cutting-edge documentaries, cult films, and rock concerts, but since 9 June 2015 it has also featured the high brow programmes from the former Sky Arts 2. This channel focused on high brow programme and featured music, opera, dance, fine arts programming. From 30 March to 14 April 2013, Sky Arts 2 was temporarily rebranded as Sky Arts Rieu in honour of André Rieu, broadcasting back-to-back concerts by the violinist

12.
Sky Atlantic
–
Sky Atlantic is a television channel owned and operated by Sky plc. It broadcasts in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, separate channels with the same name also operate in Germany, Italy and Austria. This article is about the version of the channel produced in the UK and it launched on 1 February 2011 on Sky in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Sky Atlantic is available in standard definition and high definition, the latter on Sky Atlantic HD. Stuart Murphy extended his responsibilities to become director of programmes for Sky 1, Sky 2, Pick, on 5 May 2011, Elaine Pyke, the head of drama at Sky, was promoted to director of Sky Atlantic, reporting to Murphy. Programmes on the channel are also offered to Sky customers via on-demand channels including the On Demand, both BT TV and Virgin Media had held talks with Sky over the new channel but have been unable to agree a carriage deal, in Virgins case due to pricing. It was announced on 25 October 2010 that Sky Atlantic would launch on Sky channel 108, a one-hour timeshift of Sky Atlantic started broadcasting on 20 September 2012 on channel 173. Sky Atlantic relies heavily on screenings of US television programmes, with 40% of all programming coming from HBO, in January 2016, Sky expanded the portfolio shown on Atlantic after purchasing exclusive rights to Showtime programming. The following is a list of the ten most watched programmes on Sky Atlantic, the number of viewers does not include repeats or Irish ratings

13.
Sky Cinema
–
Sky Cinema is the collective name for the premium subscription television film channels operated in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland by Sky plc. The UK and Ireland channels have over 5 million subscribers, via satellite, cable, in addition to the television channels, it has an interactive red button service, a website and in 2005 launched a 3G mobile service via Vodafone. Sky Movies was originally a film channel offered as part of Skys original 4-channel package on the Astra 1A satellite on 5 February 1989. The first film shown on the channel was Dirty Dancing, prior to its launch, Sky Movies signed first-run deals with 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Domestic Pay TV, Cable and Network Features, Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Orion Pictures, when Sky merged with rival British Satellite Broadcasting it acquired BSBs The Movie Channel. With the launch of the second Astra satellite in 1991 The Movie Channel become part of the Sky package, the first film shown was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Similarly, Sky Movies was made available to viewers on BSBs old satellite on 8 April 1991, from the re-launch of the channel under BSkyB, The Movie Channels ident was made by PDI, and heavily based on NBCs film opening used from 1987 to 1993. During 1991, Sky Movies started broadcasting for 24 hours per day, for a while in the early 1990s, the channel carried various non-films premium content such as live boxing, music concerts and WWF wrestling. This was because at this time all of Skys other channels, including Sky Sports, were shown free-to-air, when Sky Sports first became a pay channel on 1 September 1992, Sky Movies stopped showing non-films related programming. On 1 October 1992, The Comedy Channel was replaced with Sky Movies Gold and it was added as a 3-channel Sky Movies package. Rocky was the first film shown on the network, the two main channels were rebranded under a common brand on 1 November 1997. Sky Movies became Sky Movies Screen 1 and the Movie Channel became Sky Movies Screen 2, after a rebrand on 10 September 1998, Sky Movies Screen 1 became Sky Moviemax, Sky Movies Screen 2 became Sky Premier, and Sky Movies Gold was renamed Sky Cinema. The launch of Sky Digital from the new Astra 28. 2°E satellite position in October 1998 was accompanied by an expansion of channels. 1 July 2002 saw yet another re-branding exercise, the Sky Premier channels were renamed Sky Movies Premier, the Sky Moviemax channels became Sky Movies Max and the Sky Cinema channels became Sky Movies Cinema. Eventually in June 2003, Sky listened to demands for more widescreen films, the Sky Movies Premier Widescreen channel was closed and the majority of films on the remaining channels were shown in widescreen. On 1 November 2003, the Sky Movies Premier and Sky Movies Max channels were all brought under one banner as Sky Movies 1 through 9, at the same time, Sky Movies Cinema 1 and 2 became Sky Cinema 1 and 2. From 30 January 2006, Sky Movies 9 and the new Sky Movies 10 started broadcasting from 5 pm to 3 am and they were PIN-protected, meaning that for the first time 15 rated films were able to be shown as early as 5 pm. With the launch of Sky HD, the two channels were available in a high definition format

14.
Sky Living
–
Sky Living is a television channel in the United Kingdom and Ireland, owned and operated by Sky plc. The channel was launched as UK Living on 1 September 1993 and it was known as simply Living from 1997 to 2002, as Living TV from 2002 to 2007, and again as Living from 2007 to 2011. British Sky Broadcasting took over the channel in 2010, and rebranded it as Sky Living on 1 February 2011, the channels programming was originally aimed mainly at women and young adults. UK Living began broadcasting on 1 September 1993, as part of the Sky Multichannels network, the channel was mainly aimed at women aged between 25 and 45, broadcasting films, dramas, chat shows and soap operas. Most of its programming came from the programme libraries of Thames Television. A unique aspect was the repeats of such as Kilroy, Anne and Nick, and Floyd. Shortly afterwards the channel moved away from its reliance of BBC programming, in 1997, when the BBC and Flextech launched the UKTV Network, UK Style, UK Horizons and UK Arena, it was decided that UK Living would remain a separate channel. As such, it had to remove the UK branding to avoid being confused with the UKTV services, as part of an attempt to appeal more to men, the channels pink branding were replaced by a blue and silver logo in September 2013. The most watched shows on the channel are The Blacklist, Elementary, the show had brought some of the channels biggest ratings to date. And Most Haunted, which continued to be popular, the channel has also launched a number of successful US television shows in the UK market. Past successes include Charmed, Will & Grace, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Miss Match, Joan of Arcadia, CSI, and Just Shoot Me. At present the channel currently has first run UK rights to Boston Legal, Criminal Minds, Blindspot, Greys Anatomy, Ghost Whisperer, The L Word, Men in Trees and the Australian comedy Kath & Kim. In 2008 the channel debuted the first seasons of Army Wives, Lipstick Jungle. Brian Dowling was put forward as one of the figures to represent the channel – by presenting programming including Celebrity Extra, Trolley Dollies. However, in recent years, he has been absent from the channel apart from the occasional Celebrity Extra presenting duties. To continue the list of reality TV stars hosting programmes, Jodie Marsh announced that she would be presenting a new programme called Get A Life starting on 1 March 2007. However, the announced that the show was to be cancelled. This will be the first time that her show will be broadcast in HD, the following is a list of the ten most watched programmes on Sky Living, based on Live +7 data supplied by BARB up to 6 December 2015

15.
Sky News
–
Sky News is a 24-hour international multimedia news company based in the U. K. Originally a 24-hour television news channel, Sky News currently provides news on television, online, John Ryley is the Head of Sky News, a role he has held since June 2006. Other versions of Sky News are operated as joint-ventures and these include Sky News Australia and Sky News Arabia. A channel called Sky News International, with the news content but without British adverts, is available in Europe, Africa, Asia. Sky News Radio provides national and international news to radio stations in the UK. Sky News also provides content to Yahoo, the channel is available on Apple TV, Roku and YouTube. On 8 June 1988, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to start a new television service in a speech to the British Academy of Film. Sky News started broadcasting at 6 pm on 5 February 1989, there were overriding reasons of prestige and politics for keeping it. The final hurdle of the Broadcasting Bill had still to be overcome, – former deputy Prime Minister Viscount Whitelaw said in the House of Lords in 1990 that Sky News had a very high reputation. I admire it, as do other people, it will certainly waken up both the BBC and ITN and ensure that they compete with what is a very important news service. The channel has never run for a profit, and has considered using ITN to supplement the service. Ask anyone in Europe, and particularly the BBC and you will be told that Sky News has added a new, Sky News was the UKs first 24-hour news channel, broadcast on Astra 1A. It had no competition until November 1997 when BBC News launched a new 24-hour channel, BBC News 24. In September 1999 the European Commission ruled against a Sky News complaint which argued that the publicly funded BBC News 24 was unfair, the EC ruled that the television licence fee should be considered state aid but that the BBCs public service remit justified the channel. In March 2000 Sky News Active was launched, a 24-hour interactive service providing headlines on demand, in March 2004 it was announced that Sky News had won a 5-year contract to supply news bulletins to Channel 5, taking over from ITN in January 2005. On 24 October 2005, Sky News moved to new studios in Isleworth, London, the new studio was integrated with the newsroom and boasted the biggest video wall in Britain, it was designed by New York architects Janson Design Group. New music was scored by Adelphoi Music and recorded with an orchestra at Air Studios, Hampstead. New on-screen graphics were launched and the channel broadcasting in Widescreen format

16.
Sky Box Office
–
Sky Box Office is the name of Sky plcs pay-per-view system. There are three branded divisions of Sky Box Office – Sky Cinema Box Office, Sky Sports Box Office, until 1 February 2011, the system ran under unified Sky Box Office branding. On 4 January 2017, all Sky Cinema Box Office channels ceased broadcasting, Sky Box Office launched on 16 March 1996 on Sky Analogue. At the time it carried mainly sporting events, such as major boxing fights, the first of these was Frank Brunos WBC World Heavyweight Championship defence against Mike Tyson. Initially events were ordered by telephone, either on the day of broadcast for £14.95 or in advance at a price of £9.99. Ordering an event charged the viewer and then the subscribers VideoCrypt viewing card would be activated over the air, the charge would be levied unless the viewer cancelled prior to broadcast, or returned the viewing card as proof that the event hadnt been watched. Four dedicated Sky Box Office channels were launched on 1 December 1997 on Sky Analogue, at this time multiple showings of selected movies, shown in advance of their broadcast on Skys existing subscription movie channels, were added. Initial movies included The Long Kiss Goodnight and Courage Under Fire, however, at least one hour pre-ordering was required, and for most movies one purchase at £2.99 only bought one viewing. A range of pay-per-view 3-D films were screened on Sky 3D. On 1 February 2011, Sky Box Office was rebranded as Sky Movies Box Office for Movies, later in the year, Sky Sports Box Office branding was added for sports and Sky 3D Box Office for 3D. Although at launch it showed mainly sporting events, since the launch of Sky Digital, however, Sky Cinema Box Offices limited movie choices and relatively high prices have increasingly left it suffering in comparison to online DVD rental systems. Films are currently first shown on Sky Box Office on the day as DVD release as of 2011. Some films still retain the 2 to 3-month window between DVD and Sky Box Office releases and it can be purchased directly through a Sky remote control. This can be accomplished by pressing Box Office, purchase an event, since 1997, WWE have had some of their pay-per-view events available through Box Office. From 1997 to 2003, the UK based pay-per-views, No Mercy, in 2002, Sky gained the sole rights to the whole WWE pay-per-view calendar, after Channel 4s deal ended with WWE. These events were placed on Box Office, in 2004, more of WWEs premier events were moved to Box Office, including WWEs biggest event of the year, WrestleMania. Sky Movies Box Office at sky. com Sky Sports Box Office at sky. com

17.
Sky Sports F1
–
Sky Sports F1 is a television channel created exclusively for Skys UK coverage of Formula One, with Sky having a package of UK rights from the 2012 season to the 2018 season. From 2017, Sky Sports F1 will broadcast Formula 1 in UHD for the first time, the BBC initially had exclusive UK rights from 2009 until the end of the 2013 season, having regained the rights from ITV. However, because of the licence fee freeze and resultant review of cost constraints, a new broadcast rights deal was announced on 29 July 2011, stating that Sky Sports would cover all races live. Both Sky and the BBC would cover the remaining races live including the British Grand Prix and it also allowed the BBC to show highlights of all races. However, BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra would continue to broadcast live commentary of the season, including practice, qualifying. However, since its launch, similar channels have launched in Germany, on 13 January 2012, an advert was released saying the channel would launch on 9 March 2012, seven days before the start of the 2012 Formula One season. During 2012, the channel was on air for hours during race weeks. Sky Sports F1 announced via Twitter that there would not be a dedicated Sky Sports F1 app, Sky Sports F1 HD launched with a two-hour special of The F1 Show, presented by Simon Lazenby, Martin Brundle and Damon Hill, previewing the 2012 Formula One season. Sky Sports F1 HD on the Sky platform is available to new customers who take out a Sky Sports subscription with HD or existing customers before 1 April 2013 providing they subscribed to the HD pack. Subscribers to all of the Sky Sports channels without the HD pack receive a standard definition version, Virgin Media and Smallworld Cable offer the standard definition version of the channel to Sky Sports subscribers, it is not available separately. The HD version of the channel was available to Virgin Media customers subscribing to the Sky Sports Collection with the additional Sky Sports HD pack on 15 July 2014. A standard definition version of the channel is provided through Sky Go. In the 2016 Formula One season, TSN reached a deal with Sky to utilise its television coverage for Canadian F1 broadcasts, including its pre-, the 2012 season started on 16 March from the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Australia. Sky Sports broadcast every practice session, qualifying session and race live, the season passed 19 countries on the way. Formula One visited places as diverse as China, Bahrain, Belgium, Italy, the season came to an end at the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix on 25 November 2012. On 7 March 2012, Sky Sports F1 revealed their theme tune for the 2012 season, Just Drive by Alistair Griffin, the 43-second opening credits feature archive footage of former world champions and memorable F1 moments from 32 Grands Prix between 1950 and 2011. The theme tune is used on The F1 Show and for Classic F1. 2014 saw a rearrangement of the theme to go with their updated titles, Skys original arrangement is still utilised for its coverage of Classic F1 races

18.
Sky Sports News
–
Sky Sports News HQ is a 24-hour sports news television channel in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Nordic countries. The channel focuses predominantly on football but reports on a range of sports. The programming is presented by two reporters in the studio who read the news or introduce short clips featuring highlights and interviews covering a variety of topics. Tabs at the bottom of the screen give unrelated information on a range of sports. The content of the studio feed generally repeats depending on the amount of news at a given time. On 20 May 2007, SSN broadcast the Conference National play-off Final between Exeter City and Morecambe and this was due to all other Sky Sports channels being occupied by live sport. This enabled Freeview viewers to watch a match on Sky Sports. The station also had coverage of Wales v New Zealand on 26 May 2007. Sky Sports News launched on 1 October 1998, the date of BSkyBs Digital Satellite service. On 10 April 2000, SSN relaunched as Sky Sports. com TV, the channel scrapped its. com TV look, and on 1 July 2001, Sky Sports News launched another graphics change. A major part of this was the standardisation, i. e. a more corporate look across the Sky channels, the channel also scrapped its slogan and just paid attention to the fact of the news. From April 2002, Sky Sports News had another face-lift, the channel stayed in the same studio, but with a silver look replacing the old wooden bench, and there was a promise of being first for breaking news, along with much more useful information. In 2004, Sky Sports News changed its image, with an open blue look to the channel. The titles featured players such as Frank Lampard, Tim Cahill, Thierry Henry and Ryan Giggs passing the football to each other, Sky Sports News was rebranded as Sky Sports News HQ on 12 August 2014. The new studio is twice the size of the old one, as part of the change the channel moved to Sky channel 401. The channel also gained new graphics, as part of the launch, a new look for the channel was introduced at 07,00 on 5 August 2007, in time for the 2007–08 football season. The main presentation structure was retained, including the information box displaying transfers. The ticker at the bottom of the screen was retained, however changed from white to red, with the yellow

19.
Sky UK
–
Sky UK Limited is a telecommunications company which serves the United Kingdom. Sky provides television and broadband services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers. It is the UKs largest pay-TV broadcaster with 11 million customers as of 2015 and it was the UKs most popular digital TV service until it was overtaken by Freeview in April 2007. Its corporate headquarters are based in Isleworth, formed in November 1990 by the equal merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting, Sky became the UKs largest digital subscription television company. Following Skys 2014 acquisition of Sky Italia and a majority 90. 04% interest in Sky Deutschland in November 2014, the United Kingdom operations also changed the company name from British Sky Broadcasting Limited to Sky UK Limited, still trading as Sky. Sky UK Limited is an owned subsidiary of Sky plc, with its current company directors being Andrew Griffith. Griffith acts as the Chief Financial Officer and the Managing Director for the commercial businesses division, after the two companies merged, subscribers could get access to both channels, and later the sports channel Sky Sports also became encrypted. In the autumn of 1991, talks were held for the broadcast rights for Premier League for a five-year period, ITV were the current rights holders, and fought hard to retain the new rights. ITV had increased its offer from £18m to £34m per year to control of the rights. BSkyB joined forces with the BBC to make a counter bid, Murdoch described sport as a battering ram for pay-television, providing a strong customer base. A few weeks after the deal, ITV went to the High Court to get an injunction as it believed their bid details had been leaked before the decision was taken. ITV also asked the Office of Fair Trading to investigate since it believed Rupert Murdochs media empire via its newspapers had influenced the deal. A few days later neither action took effect, ITV believed BSkyB was telephoned and informed of its £262m bid, and Premier League advised BSkyB to increase its counter bid. BSkyB retained the rights paying £670m 1997–2001 deal, but was challenged by On Digital for the rights from 2001–2004, in May 2006, the Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports was awarded two of the six Premier League packages that the English FA offered to broadcasters. Sky picked up the four for £1. 3bn. In February 2015, Sky bid £4. 2bn for a package of 120 premier league games across the three seasons from 2016 and this represented an increase of 70% on the previous contract and was said to be £1bn more than the company had expected to pay. The move has been followed by staff cuts, increased subscription prices, in September 1993, BSkyB launched Sky Multichannels which was the present digital platforms analogue predecessor. Sky Multichannels was a package that gave access not only to Skys own channels

20.
Virgin Media
–
Virgin Media PLC is a British company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are in Hook, Hampshire, United Kingdom, the company has been a subsidiary of Liberty Global plc, an international television and telecommunications company headquartered in London, since June 2013. Virgin Media previously had a listing on the NASDAQ Stock Market and was a constituent of the NASDAQ-100 index. It also had a listing on the London Stock Exchange. The company was formed in March 2006 by the merger of NTL and Telewest, in November 2006 the company signed a deal with Sir Richard Branson to license the Virgin brand for the combined business. All of the companys services were rebranded under the Virgin Media name in February 2007. At the same date it had around 3 million mobile telephony customers, Virgin Media competes primarily with Sky, BT Group, EE, O2, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Three. The companys origins lie in both Telewest and NTL, which merged in March 2006, Telewest began in 1984 in Croydon under the name Croydon Cable, and was acquired by United Cable of Denver in 1988. The company expanded during the 1990s and adopted the Telewest name in 1992 following the merger of its then-parent TCI and US West. It expanded into cable television access in 1999 by purchasing the remaining 50% stake in Cable London, one of the first cable TV companies in the UK, from NTL, adding 400,000 homes in north London. In April 2000 Telewest merged with Flextech, and in November extended its network with the acquisition of Eurobell. NTL was established by Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal in 1993 as International CableTel, initially, Cabletel acquired local cable franchises covering Guildford, Northern Ireland and parts of Central Scotland and South Wales. In 1996 CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited, the privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission network, in 1998 CableTel adopted NTL as its new name. NTL purchased the ISP Virgin. net in 2004, having originally operated it as a joint venture with Virgin Group since it launched in November 1996. It sold ADSL broadband services through BT landlines to those living outside areas served by NTLs cable network and also offered subscription-based, prior to acquiring Virgin. net, NTL offered a similar package called NTL Freedom. Telewest and NTL began discussions regarding a merger in late 2003, thanks to their geographically distinct areas, NTL and Telewest had co-operated previously, as in redirecting potential customers living outside their respective areas. On 3 October 2005, NTL announced a US$16 billion purchase of Telewest, to prevent this, Telewest instead acquired NTL. In December 2005 NTL, Telewest and mobile network operator Virgin Mobile UK announced that talks had taken place regarding a merger

21.
Virgin Media Ireland
–
Virgin Media Ireland is Liberty Globals telecommunications operation in Ireland. It is the largest digital cable television provider within the Republic of Ireland, as of 31 December 2014, the company offers broadband internet, digital television and digital telephony to 1.1 million customers. Virgin Media Ireland previously traded under the branding Chorus NTL until 4 May 2010 and it is primarily in competition with Sky Ireland, eir and Vodafone in the Irish pay TV market. Originally a joint venture with Independent News and Media, IN&M sold its shares to Liberty in 2004, in May 2005, NTL agreed to sell its Irish operations NTL Ireland to Liberty Global. Morgan Stanley held the shareholding until Competition Authority approval was obtained and this occurred in December 2005 and UPC Ireland came into being on 12 December 2005. In 2006, UPC Ireland began to integrate the brands Chorus, branding wise, on 5 September 2006 NTLs website was changed to the same design as Chorus i. e. itself based on UPC Netherlands website design at the time. 25 January 2007, NTL Ireland updated the electronic programme guide software to remove the NTL logo, on 31 January 2007, NTL and Chorus began advertising jointly, although the adverts were simply the ongoing campaign from NTL with the Chorus logo added to them. On 4 June 2007 @ntlworld. ie e-mail addresses switched to @upcmail. ie, the new UPC Mediabox set top boxes which contain a hardrive based digital video recording system are fully UPC branded and come with a much enhanced EPG. These were rolled out on both the ex NTL and Chorus cable networks, from 2008, the old Pace STBs supplied by NTL Ireland were replaced with new Pace STBs designed for UPC, also branded UPC Mediabox but without the hard drive/recording capabilities. In a Sunday Business Post article on 11 February 2007, UPC Irelands marketing manager revealed that the rebrand was due to place no later than May 2007. On 16 May 2007 UPC Netherlands introduced a new UPC logo, from July 2007, all UPC advertising began bearing a composite logo reading Chorus NTL – a UPC company. On 10 June 2007 UPC announced its takeover of one of the remaining small Irish operators and this gained UPC an extra 2000 customers. During late September and early October 2007, Chorus and NTL included a leaflet with their bills explaining that a rebrand would occur on 21 October. That did not happen, however, on 30 October 2007, in November 2007, NTL Business was rebranded UPC Business, making it the first part of the company to officially adopt the UPC name. On 29 April 2008 UPCs former Cork Communications cable network, latterly part of Chorus, became the first cable network in the Ireland to switch to digital, with the analogue signal switched off. On 4 May 2010 UPC began a €3 million spend on rebranding, completing the change from Chorus, a high-profile media campaign – fronted by broadcaster Craig Doyle – was planned to run for 3 months. It also lit up a number of buildings in Dublin, Galway, UPC had received the final approvals to acquire assets from broadband rival Broadworks, which was in liquidation. This would give it access to about 6,600 homes in west Dublin, the Competition Authority cleared the deal on 21 April 2010

22.
IPTV
–
Unlike downloaded media, IPTV offers the ability to stream the source media continuously. As a result, a client media player can begin playing the data almost immediately and this is known as streaming media. Although IPTV uses the Internet protocol it is not limited to television media streamed from the Internet, IPTV in the telecommunications arena is notable for its ongoing standardisation process. Historically, many different definitions of IPTV have appeared, including elementary streams over IP networks, transport streams over IP networks and these services may include, for example, Live TV, Video On Demand and Interactive TV. These services are delivered across an access agnostic, packet switched network that employs the IP protocol to transport the audio, video, the term IPTV first appeared in 1995 with the founding of Precept Software by Judith Estrin and Bill Carrico. Precept developed an Internet video product named IP/TV, the software was written primarily by Steve Casner, Karl Auerbach, and Cha Chee Kuan. Precept was acquired by Cisco Systems in 1998, Internet radio company AudioNet started the first continuous live webcasts with content from WFAA-TV in January 1998 and KCTU-LP on January 10,1998. The operator added additional VoD service in October 2001 with Yes TV, kingston was one of the first companies in the world to introduce IPTV and IP VoD over ADSL as a commercial service. The service became the reference for various changes to UK Government regulations, in 2006, the KIT service was discontinued, subscribers having declined from a peak of 10,000 to 4,000. In 1999, NBTel was the first to commercially deploy Internet protocol television over DSL in Canada using the Alcatel 7350 DSLAM, the service was marketed under the brand VibeVision in New Brunswick, and later expanded into Nova Scotia in early 2000 after the formation of Aliant. IMagic TV was later sold to Alcatel, in 2002, Sasktel was the second in Canada to commercially deploy Internet Protocol video over DSL, using the Lucent Stinger DSL platform. In 2005, SureWest Communications was the first North American company to offer high-definition television channels over an IPTV service, in 2005, Bredbandsbolaget launched its IPTV service as the first service provider in Sweden. As of January 2009, they are not the biggest supplier any longer, TeliaSonera, in 2007, TPG became the first internet service provider in Australia to launch IPTV. Complementary to its ADSL2+ package this was, and still is, free of charge to customers on eligible plans and now offers over 45 local free to air channels, by 2010, iiNet and Telstra launched IPTV services in conjunction to internet plans but with extra fees. In 2008, PTCL launched IPTV under the name of PTCL Smart TV in Pakistan. S. Markets with an IPTV service called Prism and this was after successful test marketing in Florida. During the 2014 Winter Olympics Shortest path bridging was used to deliver 36 IPTV HD Olympic channels, in 2016, KCTV introduced the Set-top box called Manbang, claiming to provide video-on-demand services in North Korea via quasi-internet protocol television. According to KCTV, viewers can use the service not only in Pyongyang, stating that the demands for the equipment are particularly high in Sinuiju, with several hundred users in the region

23.
TalkTalk TV
–
TalkTalk TV is a UK-based consumer television and video on demand service, operated by the TalkTalk Group. In its current form, it was launched on 3 September 2012 in a partnership with YouView and its offering is delivered over a BT phone line, using ADSL or VDSL to provide a triple-play package of IPTV, video on demand, telephony and broadband internet access. There are now 2 options available – Plus TV or Essentials TV, the only difference is the Essentials Box cannot record and only has the capability of pausing and rewinding for up to 30 Minutes, compared to the standard 2 Hours on the Plus Box. The YouView box is a Smart Freeview+HD box which means BBC1 to 4 News and CBBC, humax have a silver 1TB model which can be bought in retail stores and can be used with or without a TalkTalk subscription. Currently both Huawei boxes do not have Wifi built in, and therefore an ethernet cable must be used for internet content and boosts. The service, originally known as Homechoice, was launched in September 2000 in the London area, in 2003, as Homechoice, it expanded its video services to include, via its IPTV platform, the majority of live channels that are available on the Freeview platform. Homechoice was purchased by Tiscali UK in August 2006, and became known as Tiscali TV, on 30 June 2009, a deal for The Carphone Warehouse to purchase all the assets of Tiscali UK for its TalkTalk division was approved by the European Union. As a result of Tiscali UKs acquisition, Tiscali TV was rebranded as TalkTalk TV as of 14 July 2009, TalkTalk TV however struggled to compete against BSkyB, Virgin Media and BTs television services. By the time Tiscali UK was taken over, there were just 50,000 TV subscribers, by the start of 2011, TalkTalk discontinued its existing TV service and removed it from their official site. TalkTalk formally launched its new YouView-based TV service in September 2012, a free YouView box will be provided to TalkTalk Plus customers taking out a fixed term contract and allow access to the content previously available from TalkTalk TV. Content that TalkTalk provides is available from the TalkTalk Player application within the YouView menu, BT, similarly to TalkTalk, offer a TV service together with YouView. Despite being launched in September 2012, TalkTalk did not start to heavily promote its TV service until early 2013, by May 2013, TalkTalk Plus TV became Britains fastest growing TV service. As of 1 September 2014, customers with a second YouView box will not be able to watch Boost channels, the boxes will be describes as Primary and Secondary boxes, where TV boosts are only available on the Primary Box. There is currently no multi-room package, YouView launched a Netflix player for new and existing Netflix customers. This is now on retail boxes and will launch on TalkTalk early 2015, TalkTalk announces the axe of six Discovery network channels from the Entertainment boosts on 30 June 2016. TalkTalk strikes a deal to offer original series and content from Maker Studios, TalkTalk Plus TV is delivered by IPTV signals using a YouView set-top box. These boxes also allow access to terrestrial television signals using an additional aerial to watch Freeview channels. Originally all its channels and content were available on the TalkTalk Player without any EPG channel numbers, on 7 August 2013, the channels became available on the YouView EPG with channel numbering ranging from 401 to 599

24.
BT TV
–
BT TV is a subscription IPTV service offered by BT, a division of United Kingdom telecommunications company BT Group, and was originally launched as BT Vision in December 2006. As of the end of 2015, BT TV has 1.4 million customers, BT TV provides on-demand content,28 extra entertainment channels,9 extra childrens channels,11 Movie channels and 5 live sports channels. BT Sport channels are available in SD and HD through IPTV signals, BT Sport, ESPN and AMC from BT are now available in non-fibre areas over IPTV using copper multicast where available. BT started rebranding its TV services – Vision and BTs YouView service as BT TV between May and August 2013. On 11 April 2014, BT announced that the original Vision service will be closed down as of 30 June, the Vision service was, after August 2013, solely used to broadcast Sky Sports, as well as BT Sport for non-Infinity customers. In January 2001, the ban was lifted, BT Vision was launched on 5 December 2006, competing with Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk Plus TV. Initial industry reaction was positive although there was criticism that set up costs were expensive. In May 2007, BT Group launched an advertising campaign for BT Vision. BT Vision was the second IPTV television platform in the UK, the aim was to attract hundreds of thousands of customers by the end of 2007 and 2–3 million in the medium-term. However, adoption was slow and by February 2008 BT Vision had just 150,000 customers, BT Vision also have the right to offer on demand coverage of 125 matches each season from the Football League and League Cup. This service ceased prior to the start of the 2010–11 season, BT Vision made a deal with American sports TV company ESPN for carriage of its new channel which replaced Setanta on DTT. On 7 January 2008, BT reached a deal with Microsoft where the latters Xbox 360 console will provide BT Vision on demand content, the service was due to launch in mid-2008 but never materialised. On 28 June 2010, BT and Sky signed an agreement where Sky Sports 1 and 2 will be available for BT Vision customers and this came a year after BT stopped offering Setanta Sports 1 &2 on Vision after Setanta lost the rights to broadcast Premier League football. On 22 March 2012, it was announced that BT would offer UKTV original content on-demand from later in the day. Featured programmes include, James Martins Mediterranean, Choccywoccydoodah, Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, Celebrity Fantasy Homes, Tool Academy, Bridezillas, Amazing Planet, as part of the deal, UKTV started streaming linear channels to BT Vision set top boxes later in 2012. The first three were Watch, GOLD and Alibi further channels, Good Food, Eden and Home were to launch at a later date. Dave, Really and Yesterday will likely not launch on the service as they are available on Freeview. On 11 April 2012, BT and Fox International Channels announced that from late 2012, BT Vision customers were also able to watch many of the top shows, up to seven days after transmission on-demand and watch library programmes on-demand

25.
Vodafone Ireland
–
Vodafone Ireland Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Vodafone Group, is the largest mobile phone operator in Ireland in terms of active subscribers. It was created when the Vodafone Group bought Eircell the mobile arm of Telecom Éireann. 2Mbit/s, a 4G network was launched in October 2013 Vodafone claim over 90% of the island of Ireland is covered by their 4G network within the Republic. Vodafone 4G operates on the 800/1800 network offering speeds of up to 75Mbit/s, Vodafone 4G is available to over 6 cities and 500 towns in the Republic of Ireland making Vodafone the strongest and most widespread 4G service offered in Ireland. Vodafone Ireland offers a range of contract and prepay services, including mobile telephony. The company also offers a range of services including traditional telephone services, ADSL2+. These services are delivered using the eircom wholesale access network with Vodafones own back-haul capacity, Eircell commenced operation in 1986 as the Mobile and Broadcast division of Telecom Éireann. The GSM network went live on July 1993, Eircell handled the Irish mobile phone networks defined by the access codes 088 and 087 from 1984 until its transfer to Vodafone in 2001. Usage of the service remained low until it became a subsidiary, Eircell Limited. In October 1997, Eircell introduced the analogue prepaid pay as you go system under the Ready To Go brand, from early 1997 Eircell faced competition from Esat Digifone, then a joint venture between Denis OBriens Esat Telecom Group plc and Telenor of Norway. In 2002, Eircell Vodafone was rebranded as Vodafone Ireland plc, in 2001, Eircell closed down its original analogue TACS system, and Vodafone Ireland now operates a purely digital network. Vodafone saw Eircell undergo a major rebranding exercise on its acquisition by the group, the main rebranding was to associate a shade of deep purple with the company. When Vodafone rebranded with their trademark shade of red, the tagline used was Red is the new purple, Vodafone Ireland introduced UMTS services in 2004, launching the first handsets in November. This meant they were ahead of O2 Ireland and new entrant 3 Ireland in launching third-generation services, Mobile network Meteor is rolling out their own 3G/UMTS network, having been awarded the last Irish UMTS licence. Initially restricted to customers, Vodafone extended UMTS to pre-pay Ready To Go customers from 2 June 2005. Vodafone Ireland have also known as Eircell-Vodafone during their dual-branding phase. Analysis by the Sunday Independent in January 2006 showed the massive margins being earned by Vodafone, if the mobile phone companies were to cut their Irish margins to the group average, Vodafone customers would see their annual bills falling by an average of €80. A senior manager at Vodafone Ireland in March 2007 was dismissed following allegations that he defrauded the mobile operator of more than €1m, the company added in a statement, As the matter is subject to legal proceedings, Vodafone cannot comment further. The National Parents Council criticised mobile phone companies for the lack of information available about filtering, in January 2009 it was revealed that Ireland is nearly the most profitable market in the world for multinational mobile operators like Vodafone

26.
Eir (telecommunications)
–
Eircom Limited, trading as Eir, is a fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications company in Ireland, and a former state-owned monopolist. It is the largest telecommunications operator in the Republic, with a division to service the business and corporate telecom markets in Northern Ireland, as Bord Telecom Éireann, the company was state-owned until 1999, when it was floated on the Irish and New York Stock Exchanges. Eir operates the fixed-line telephone network, an LTE, HSDPA and GSM/EDGE mobile telephone network Meteor, as of Q12013, Eircom had 54% market share of fixed voice lines, 40% market share of fixed broadband, 11% of mobile broadband, and 17% of mobile. By late 2007 Eircom added their 500, 000th DSL subscriber but broadband share may have fallen to 44% due to growth of fixed wireless, cable and fibre services. Its main competitors are Virgin Media Ireland, Vodafone Ireland, Imagine Communications and Magnet Networks and Smart Telecom, with a mix of LLU/GLUMP from Eircom, Eir operates the largest fixed-line telecommunications network in the Republic of Ireland, under licence from the Commission for Communications Regulation. Most homes and businesses in the state are dependent on their network, a range of telecommunications services is provided on the network including Business IP, its MPLS platform. Eir have also completed a wholly owned fibre network ring around Northern Ireland and their ISP division, Eir Net, provides dial-up services, as well as broadband services. Any alarm-monitoring products using SMS are hardcoded to work with Eirs SMSC, so will not work on Digiweb, BT, Smart, DECT SMS handsets are also preprogrammed for Eirs SMSC. Eirs mobile arm, Meteor, provides a range of HSPA. Its GSM network operates at 1800 MHz and 900 MHz ranges, GPRS and EDGE data services are also available. Meteor have launched HSPA services in Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Meteor provides both bill-pay and pre-pay plans and has approximately 19% of the Irish mobile market, with 1,032,000 cellular subscribers on the Meteor network. The company has used EDGE technology on its network and has received a 3G license, formally removed from Eirs competitor, as an operator with significant market power, Eir is required to provide a number of wholesale products to other operators and to switch calls onto other phone networks. Many broadband products offered by other operators are resales of the Eir product, a series of telephone directories is distributed annually to all households in the Republic of Ireland. The six annual directories list numbers in the local dialling area, the company was formed in 1984 as Bord Telecom Éireann, under the Posts and Telecommunications Act 1983. In May 2013, it announced that Phonewatch had been sold to Oslo-based company, from 2000 to 2008, Eircom sponsored the League of Ireland. Although EU laws required the opening of the Irish telecommunications market, Telecom Éireann was privatised, this was very controversial and subject to much debate. The process began in 1995, and by July 1999 the government had disposed of all of its shareholding. Eircom plc was floated on the Irish, London and New York Stock Exchanges on 8 July 1999

27.
Streaming media
–
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a provider. A client end-user can use their player to begin to play the data file before the entire file has been transmitted. For example, in the 1930s, elevator music was among the earliest popularly available streaming media, the term streaming media can apply to media other than video and audio such as live closed captioning, ticker tape, and real-time text, which are all considered streaming text. As of 2017, streaming is generally taken to refer to cases where a user watches digital video content or listens to audio content on a computer screen. With streaming content, the user does not have to download the digital video or digital audio file before they start to watch/listen to it. There are challenges with streaming content on the Internet, as of 2016, two popular streaming services are the video sharing website YouTube, which contains video and audio files on a huge range of topics and Netflix, which streams movies and TV shows. Live streaming refers to Internet content delivered in real-time, as events happen, Live internet streaming requires a form of source media, an encoder to digitize the content, a media publisher, and a content delivery network to distribute and deliver the content. Live streaming does not need to be recorded at the origination point, in the early 1920s, George O. Attempts to display media on computers date back to the earliest days of computing in the mid-20th century, however, little progress was made for several decades, primarily due to the high cost and limited capabilities of computer hardware. From the late 1980s through the 1990s, consumer-grade personal computers became powerful enough to various media. These technological improvement facilitated the streaming of audio and video content to users in their homes and workplaces. The band Severe Tire Damage was the first group to live on the Internet. On June 24,1993, the band was playing a gig at Xerox PARC while elsewhere in the building, as proof of PARCs technology, the bands performance was broadcast and could be seen live in Australia and elsewhere. Microsoft Research developed a Microsoft TV application which was compiled under MS Windows Studio Suite, realNetworks was also a pioneer in the streaming media markets, when it broadcast a baseball game between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners over the Internet in 1995. The first symphonic concert on the Internet took place at the Paramount Theater in Seattle, the concert was a collaboration between The Seattle Symphony and various guest musicians such as Slash, Matt Cameron, and Barrett Martin. When Word Magazine launched in 1995, they featured the first-ever streaming soundtracks on the Internet.4 in 1999, in June 1999 Apple also introduced a streaming media format in its QuickTime 4 application. It was later widely adopted on websites along with RealPlayer. In 2000 Industryview. com launched its worlds largest streaming video archive website to help promote themselves

28.
Sky Go
–
Sky Go is an online television service from Sky which launched in January 2006. On demand content comprises sports highlights, latest news, movies, the service is available at no extra cost to existing Sky TV customers, with accessible content depending on the subscribers Sky package. Non-Sky TV customers can access the service by subscribing on a pay-per-view basis, Sky Go is viewable on up to two devices, with the ability to increase this to four devices with Sky Go Extra for a monthly fee. The Microsoft Silverlight 3.0 browser plug-in is required to play content on computers, due to viewing rights, certain programmes are not available to watch via Sky Go, and are blacked out from the schedule. To have access to the selection of live TV channels available on Sky Go. Sky Go has problems playing on any Apple device running Mac OS X10.7 or higher when playing movies larger than 1000Mb, on 25 November 2006 Sky announced that Sky By Broadband had been rebranded as Sky Anytime on PC. The rebranding also coincided with an update to the client, which included a new interface, on 16 May 2008, Sky Anytime on PC was rebranded as Sky Player, along with updated software to include live simulcasts of Sky News and Sky Sports. On 29 October 2009, the service expanded on to the Xbox 360, an Xbox Live Gold subscription is required, and users need to register via the Sky Go website. Features include a party system allows multiple users to watch content at the same time. Due to the level of demand, the launch of the service was troublesome. To rectify this, Sky decided to open up Sky Go on Xbox 360 to users incrementally over the following days, on 19 November 2009, Sky Player was also made available to Windows Media Center-equipped Windows 7 computers. Users of 3G phones on Vodafone, Orange, and T-Mobile could subscribe to Sky Mobile TV, on 6 July 2011, Sky Player and Sky Mobile TV services were merged and rebranded as Sky Go. Key changes include the ability to watch live channels in line with your Sky TV subscription at no additional cost, support for Windows Media Center was dropped, however an app was released for Apples iOS operating system, used on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. A Sky Go app for Android devices was released on 20 February 2012, Sky Go for Android does not work on rooted phones and was initially only available on a selection of Android phones from HTC and Samsung. On 11 December 2012, Sky Go added support for Jelly Bean and additional devices, including those from Google, LG and Sony. As of 2013, Sky Go is not in development for other such as BlackBerry 10, Windows Phone 8 or Windows RT. The download feature was available for free in the Sky Go Desktop client. On 1 May 2014, Sky announced the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 will be receiving Sky Go by the end of 2014

29.
Broadcasting of sports events
–
The broadcasting of sports events is the live coverage of sports as a television program, on radio, and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one or more sports commentators describing the events as they happen, Broadcasting of sports started with descriptions of play sent via telegraph in the 1890s. In 1896, a line was connected to the Victoria Rink in Montreal to update fans in Winnipeg of the Stanley Cup challenge series between Montreal and Winnipeg ice hockey teams. Later that month, the first full-game broadcast took place in Winnipeg and that same season, hockey broadcasting pioneer Foster Hewitt made his first broadcast. In 1933, Hewitt called a Canada-wide radio broadcast of an NHL game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs, always starting the broadcast with Hello, Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland. This phrase stuck around all the way to CBCs first national television broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada in October 1952, today it is consistently among the highest-rated programs in Canada. Broadcasting of the Canadian Football League has been a fixture of Canadian television since the CBCs debut in 1952, from 1962 through 2007, there were two separate CFL contracts, one for CBC, and one for CTV. Terrestrial television broadcasts of CFL games ended in 2008, when TSN acquired exclusive TV rights to the league, American sports broadcasts are widely available in Canada, both from Canadian stations and from border blasters in the United States. The first sports event broadcast in the United Kingdom was a Rugby Union international between England and Wales, broadcast from Twickenham in January 1927, two weeks later the first broadcast of a football match took place, with the BBC covering Arsenals league fixture against Sheffield United at Highbury. The United Kingdom saw the first live television broadcast of a football match, the British media is dominated by national outlets, with local media playing a much smaller role. ITV broadcast a smaller portfolio of events, and Channel 4 broadcast a few events from the 1980s, mainly horse races, in the early 1990s this arrangement was shaken up by the arrival of pay-TV in the form of BSkyB. Their dedicated sports channels have become the only place for some major sports to be seen. There is also a dedicated UK version of Eurosport, called British Eurosport, Radio sports coverage is also important. BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts almost all sports events. BBC Local Radio also provides coverage of sport, giving more exposure to second-tier clubs which get limited national coverage. In the United States, national and local media both serve major roles in sports broadcasting, depending on the league and event, telecasts are often shown live on network television, and nationally available cable channels. Additionally, cable channels also exist that are dedicated to types of sports, certain college sports conferences. Pay-per-view broadcasts are restricted to combat sports such as boxing

30.
Satellite television
–
A direct-broadcast satellite is a type of artificial satellite which usually broadcasts satellite television signals for home reception. The type of satellite television which uses direct-broadcast satellites is known as direct-broadcast satellite television or direct-to-home television and these services were to use the D-Mac and D2-Mac format and BSS frequencies with circular polarization from orbital positions allocated to each country. Before these DBS satellites, home satellite television in Europe was limited to a few channels, really intended for cable distribution, in 1977, the ITU adopted an international BSS Plan under which each country was allocated specific frequencies at specific orbital locations for domestic service. Over the years, this plan has been modified to, for example, accommodate new countries, increase coverage areas, at present, numerous countries have brought into use their BSS Plan allocations. By contrast, the term DTH can apply to similar services transmitted over a range of frequencies transmitted from satellites that are not part of any internationally planned band. The term DBS is often used interchangeably with DTH to cover both analog and digital video and audio services received by relatively small dishes, a DBS service usually refers to either a commercial service, or a group of free channels available from one orbital position targeting one country. In certain regions of the world, especially in North America, DBS is used to refer to providers of subscription satellite packages, the second commercial DBS service, Sky Television plc, was launched in 1989. Sky TV started as a four-channel free-to-air analogue service on the Astra 1A satellite, by 1991, Sky had changed to a conditional access pay model, and it launched a digital service, Sky Digital, in 1998, with analogue transmission ceasing in 2001. Since the DBS nomenclature is used in the UK or Ireland. News Corporation has a 32% stake in BSkyB, PrimeStar began transmitting an analog service to North America in 1991, and was joined by DirecTV, in 1994. At the time, DirecTVs introduction was the most successful consumer electronics debut in American history, although PrimeStar transitioned to a digital system in 1994, it was ultimately unable to compete with DirecTV, which required a smaller satellite dish and could deliver more programming. DirecTV purchased PrimeStar in 1999 and moved all of that subscribers to DirecTV equipment. In 2008, Liberty Media Corporation purchased News Corporations controlling interest in DirecTV, in 1996, EchoStars Dish Network went online in the United States and, as DirecTVs primary competitor, achieved similar success. AlphaStar also started but soon went under, astro was also started, using a direct broadcast satellite system. Dominion Video Satellite Inc. s Sky Angel launched on a platform in the United States in 1996, with its DBS service geared toward the faith. It grew from six to 36 television and radio channels of entertainment, Christian-inspirational programming. Dominion, under its corporate name Video Satellite Systems Inc. Sky Angel, although a separate and independent DBS service, used the satellites, transmission facilities

31.
Premier League
–
The Premier League is an English professional league for mens association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League, Welsh clubs that compete in the English football league system can also qualify. The Premier League is a corporation in which the 20 member clubs act as shareholders, seasons run from August to May. Teams play 38 matches each, totalling 380 matches in the season, most games are played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, others during weekday evenings. It is colloquially known as the Premiership and outside the UK it is referred to as the English Premier League. The deal was worth £1 billion a year domestically as of 2013–14, with BSkyB, the league generates €2.2 billion per year in domestic and international television rights. In 2014/15, teams were apportioned revenues of £1.6 billion, the Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes and a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people. In the 2014–15 season, the average Premier League match attendance exceeded 36,000, most stadium occupancies are near capacity. The Premier League ranks third in the UEFA coefficients of leagues based on performances in European competitions over the past five seasons. While 47 clubs have competed since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, only six have won the title, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, the current champions are Leicester City, who won the title in 2015–16. Despite significant European success in the 1970s and early 1980s, the late 80s marked a low point for English football, the 1988 negotiations were the first signs of a breakaway league, ten clubs threatened to leave and form a super league, but were eventually persuaded to stay. As stadiums improved and match attendance and revenues rose, the top teams again considered leaving the Football League in order to capitalise on the influx of money into the sport. At the close of the 1991 season, a proposal was tabled for the establishment of a new league that would bring money into the game overall. The Founder Members Agreement, signed on 17 July 1991 by the games top-flight clubs, the argument given at the time was that the extra income would allow English clubs to compete with teams across Europe. The managing director of London Weekend Television, Greg Dyke, met with the representatives of the big five clubs in England in 1990. The meeting was to pave the way for an away from The Football League. The FA did not enjoy a relationship with the Football League at the time

32.
English Football League
–
The English Football League is a league competition featuring professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in world football and it was the top-level football league in England from its foundation in the 19th century until 1992, when the top 22 clubs split away to form the Premier League. The league has 72 clubs evenly divided into three divisions, which are known as the Championship, League One and League Two, with 24 clubs in each division, the Football League has been associated with a title sponsor between 1983 and 2016. As this sponsor changed over the years the league too has been known by various names, the English Football League is also the name of the governing body of the league competition, and this body also organises two knock-out cup competitions, the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy. The operations centre of the Football League is in Preston, while its commercial office is in London, the commercial office was formerly based in Lytham St Annes, after its original spell in Preston. The Football League consists of 70 professional association football clubs in England and 2 in Wales and it runs the oldest professional football league competition in the world. It also organises two knockout cup competitions, the Football League Cup and Football League Trophy, the Football League was founded in 1888 by then Aston Villa director William McGregor, originally with 12 member clubs. Steady growth and the addition of more divisions meant that by 1950 the League had 92 clubs, the Football League therefore no longer includes the top 20 clubs who belong to this group, although promotion and relegation between the Football League and the Premier League continues. In total,136 teams have played in the Football League up to 2013, the Football Leagues 72 member clubs are grouped into three divisions, the Football League Championship, Football League One, and Football League Two. Each division has 24 clubs, and in any season a club plays each of the others in the same division twice, once at their home stadium. This makes for a total of 46 games played each season, clubs gain three points for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. At the end of the season, clubs at the top of their division may win promotion to the higher division. At the top end of the competition, three Championship clubs win promotion from the Football League to the Premier League, with the bottom three Premier League clubs taking their places, reserve teams of Football League clubs usually play in the Central League or the Football Combination. Since the 2004–05 season, penalties have existed for clubs entering financial administration during the season and it is also required that a club exiting administration agree a Creditors Voluntary Agreement, and pay in full any other footballing creditors. Failure to do either of these result in a second. The other main situation in which is a club may lose points is by fielding an improperly registered or otherwise ineligible player. If a club is found to have done this, then any points earned from any match that player participated in will be deducted, the EFL organises two knock-out cup competitions, the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy. The EFL Cup was established in 1960 and is open to all EFL and Premier League clubs, the EFL Trophy is for clubs belonging to EFL League One and EFL League Two

33.
British Satellite Broadcasting
–
British Satellite Broadcasting was a television company, headquartered in London, that provided direct broadcast satellite television services to the United Kingdom. The company was merged with Sky Television plc in November 1990 to form British Sky Broadcasting and it started broadcasting on 25 March 1990. In 1977 the World Administrative Radio Conference assigned each country five high-powered channels for direct broadcast by satellite for domestic use, within a few months the BBC started talking with the Independent Broadcasting Authority, about providing a joint project to help cover the cost. The project failed in May 1985 when the consortium concluded that the cost of set up was not justifiable, the BBC stated the costs were prohibitive, because the government insisted that the BBC should pay for the costs of constructing and launching a dedicated satellite. One of the conditions imposed on applicants by the IBA was that use a new, untried transmission standard. This standard was part of the European Community’s attempt to promote a high-definition television standard being developed by Philips and other European companies, the conditions to use a High power Satellite was dropped, and no winner was precluded from buying a foreign satellite system. The IBA received five bids for the Direct Broadcast Satellite franchises. It also received submission from the The Childrens Channel and ITN to make sure their programmes are used on any successful bid, British Satellite Broadcasting, Consortium by Granada Television, Pearson, Virgin Group, Anglia Television and Amstrad. DBS UK LTD, Consortium by Carlton Communications, LWT, Saatchi and Saatchi, Dixons and it planned a sport/news/business channel, entertainment channel, and Super Channel. Direct Broadcasting Limited, Consortium by British and Commonwealth shipping, Cambridge Electronic Industries, Electronics Rental Group, Rupert Murdochs News International, One channel was for families and children, second channel for films, 3rd channel would have broadcast Sky Channel. National Broadcasting Service, Consortium by, James Lee - Former head of Goldcrest Films, promised schedules for children, sport fans along with a news channel. SatUK Broadcasting, Created by Muir Sutherland and Jimmy Hartley, back by Australian finanicier Mr Alan Bond, proposed Free to air entertainment channel, £5 monthly film channel and a £2 monthly family channel. British Satellite Broadcasting won the franchise on 11 December 1986 to operate the Direct Broadcasting by Satellite System over four rival bids with a licence to operate three channels. BSB believed 400,000 homes would be equipped during its first year, the Cable Authority welcomed the service, believing it would encourage more users, especially with its dedicated movie channel. BSBs original satellite channels were, Screen, film channel Zigzag, kids and lifestyle channel, Australian businessman Alan Bond joined the consortium along with Reed International, Chargeurs, Next plc and London Merchant Securities amongst others. BSB earmarked the bulk of the first round of financing for buying and launching two satellites and planned a second close to the commencement of broadcasting operations. It commissioned Hughes Aircraft to provide two high-powered satellites using launch vehicles from McDonnell Douglas, both companies were American and had established reputations for reliability. BSB had been aware of the launch of Astra when it submitted its proposal to the IBA in 1986

34.
Sky Television plc
–
Sky Television plc was a public limited company which operated a nine-channel satellite television service, launched by Rupert Murdochs News International on 5 February 1989. Sky Television and its rival British Satellite Broadcasting suffered large financial losses, programming merger took effect on 1 December 1990. Sky Television plc was originally Satellite Television Ltd. a consortium set up by Brian Haynes in November 1980, Haynes was a former journalist employed at Thames Television. In 1979 he produced a documentary for the TV Eye strand which looked at Ted Turner and he soon realised the potential of using satellites to provide a new kind of television broadcasting. Haynes first advised Thames Television, the Independent Broadcasting Authority and a group before setting up SATV. While at first the island of Malta was its official target, it had a wide, however, the low-powered satellite forced it to broadcast to cable systems rather than directly to individual satellite dishes, which proved to be a losing proposition. European satellite television plans started in the late 1960s, when plans were first laid for an experimental satellite, the Orbital Test Satellite was launched using the Delta rocket in May 1978 and allowed the necessary testing to allow for Europes first commercial venture in telecommunications and television. From 1978 to 1981, OTS was successful in illustrating the viability of Ku-Band technology for the continent of Europe, following the completion of its test programme, excess transponder capacity was leased to SATV. Satellite Television began regular transmissions on 26 April 1982, becoming Europes first ever cable and satellite channel, norway and Finland were the first two countries to permit the new services transmission via cable, followed by Malta and Switzerland, and then West Germany. Many programmes from the ITV companies archives appeared on the schedules of the new channel, such as Please, dickens of London, The Rag Trade, Within These Walls and Hadleigh. In time, these were accompanied by some self-made programmes, such as the music show Cable Countdown hosted by BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read, initially, the channels self-made programming and continuity played out from the Molinare studios at Fouberts Place in the West End of London. Nonetheless, the station struggled financially because of a limited audience, the service also had to cover the high costs of satellite transmission. By the end of March, Rupert Murdoch had shown interest in the project, on 27 June 1983, the shareholders of Satellite Television agreed a £5 million offer to give News International 65% of the company. Eventually, Murdoch bought the shares of the company, taking full control. During August, Murdoch outlined plans which saw the broadcasting hours extended to 17.50 to 22.30 each day, with a mix of music, sport, news, comedy, by 16 October 1983, the station finally started broadcasting to the UK. On 16 January 1984 the channel was renamed Sky Channel, the new management also adopted a more aggressive policy to reach an increasing number of cable households throughout Europe. Shortly after the relaunch, the first cable system in the UK to incorporate it on a permanent basis was Swindon Cable. In the Republic of Ireland, Sky Channel started to become widely available among cable systems in around 1987, by the mid-1980s, Murdoch was looking to use the newly emerging direct satellite broadcasting technology, and to focus primarily on the British market

35.
Eurosport
–
Eurosport is a pan-European television sports network, owned and operated by Discovery Communications. Discovery took a 20% minority interest share in December 2012, and became the majority shareholder in the Eurosport venture with TF1 in January 2014, on 22 July 2015 Discovery agreed to acquire TF1s remaining 49% stake in the venture. Eurosport owns a range of rights across many sports but generally does not bid for premium priced rights such as those to major football leagues. However, in 2015 it was awarded rights to broadcast the Olympic Games from 2018 for most of Europe and 2022 for the UK, Eurosport has also expanded its deal with The All England Club to show all the Wimbledon matches live in 16 additional countries. It is a 3-year deal that includes exclusive TV and digital rights and this expands their tennis portfolio to show all four Grand Slams. The network of channels is available in 54 countries, in 20 different languages, providing viewers with European, Eurosport first launched on European satellites on 5 February 1989. In February 2017, Discovery Communications launched the channel in India, the channel was made available on various platforms in both SD and HD feeds. Eurosport provides viewers with European and international sporting events, in June 2015 it was announced that Eurosport had secured the pan-European rights to the winter and summer Olympic Games between 2018 and 2024. Eurosport broadcasts every WTCC race live and every ERC rally either live or with daily highlights, Eurosport Events was also the promoter of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge, a rival rallying series to the World Rally Championship. The IRC ceased at the end of the 2012 season, with Eurosport taking over series promotion of the ERC from 2013, since 2008, the Eurosport Group has also been broadcasting the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans in full. On 29 September 2015, Eurosport acquired the Portuguese broadcasting rights for Formula One between 2016 and 2018, Eurosport broadcasts different sporting events in each region. Region-specific events are noted in the table below with a flag indicating the country it is broadcast in, if no flag is present, the broadcast is multi territory. Prior to the creation of Eurosport, the European Broadcasting Union was acquiring substantial amounts of sports rights and this provided the impetus for setting up the Eurosport Consortium, made up of several EBU members, to establish an outlet where these rights could be exploited. Sky Television plc was chosen as a partner, and the channel could launch on 5 February 1989. Eurosport was closed down in May 1991 after the competing Screensport channel had filed a complaint to the European Commission over the corporate structure, the channel was however saved when the TF1 Group stepped in to replace BSkyB as joint-owners. A new Eurosport channel was able to start its broadcasts the same month, on 1 March 1993, the cable and satellite channel Screensport merged with Eurosport. Eurosport eventually came under a French consortium comprising the TF1 Group, Canal+ Group, in January 2001, TF1 took full ownership of Eurosport. Europe and Eurosport formed a website which Eurosport used as its web portal, including an online TV guide, in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy

36.
European Broadcasting Union
–
The European Broadcasting Union is an alliance of public service media entities, established on 12 February 1950. As of 2015, the organisation comprises 73 active members in 56 countries, most EU states are part of this organisation and therefore EBU has been subject to supranational legislation and regulation. It also hosted debates between candidates for the European Commission presidency for the 2014 parliamentary elections but is unrelated to the institution itself and it is best known for producing the Eurovision Song Contest. EBU is a member of the International Music Council, Members of the EBU are radio and television companies, most of which are government-owned public service broadcasters or privately owned stations with public service missions. Active Members come from as far north as Iceland and as far south as Egypt, from Ireland in the west and Azerbaijan in the east, Associate Members are from countries and territories beyond Europe, such as Canada, Japan, Mexico, India, and Hong Kong. Associate Members from the United States include ABC, CBS, NBC, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Time Warner, and the only individual station, Chicago-based classical music station WFMT. Active Members are those paying EBU members meeting all technical criteria for full membership, syria is an example of a country within the EBA not complying with all technical criteria for full membership, and thus it is currently only granted Associated Membership. The EBUs highest profile production is the Eurovision Song Contest, organised by its Eurovision Network, the countries represented in the EBU also co-operate to create documentaries and childrens programming. Most EBU broadcasters have a deal to carry the Olympics. Another annually recurring event which is broadcast across Europe through the EBU is the Vienna New Years Concert, the theme music played before EBU broadcasts is Marc-Antoine Charpentiers Prelude to Te Deum. It is well known to Europeans as it is played before and after the Eurovision Song Contest, the EBU was a successor to the International Broadcasting Union that was founded in 1925 and had its administrative headquarters in Geneva and technical office in Brussels. It fostered programming exchanges between members and mediated disputes between members that were mostly concerned with frequency and interference issues. It was in effect taken over by Nazi Germany during the Second World War, france proposed that it would have four votes with the inclusion of its North African colonies. Great Britain felt it would have influence with just one vote. On 27 June 1946 the alternative International Broadcasting Organisation was founded with 26 members, the following day the IBU met in General Assembly and an attempt was made to dissolve it but failed, though 18 of its 28 members left to join the IBO. For a period of time in the late 1940s both the IBU and IBO vied for the role of organising frequencies but Britain decided to be in involved in neither, the BBC attempted but failed to find suitable working arrangements with them. However, for practical purposes the IBO rented the IBU technical centre in Brussels, in August 1949 a meeting took place in Stresa, Italy but it resulted in disagreement between delegates on how to resolve the problems. One proposal was for the European Broadcasting Area to be replaced by one that would exclude Eastern Europe, after Stresa, a consensus emerged among the Western Europeans to form a new organisation and the BBC proposed it be based in London

37.
Screensport
–
Screensport was a pan-European sports television channel that broadcast from 1984 to 1993 before merging with Eurosport. Screensport was founded in 1981 by Bob Kennedy — who had started up BBC Radio Leicester, what became Sky One, backers included US networks ABC and ESPN. A programming deal with TransWorld International allowed access to events taking place around the world, the channel began broadcasting on 29 March 1984. Media Communications controlled the studios and transmission facilities in Knutsford, Cheshire, apart from American sports, the station aired regular and weekly British sports including British speedway and stock cars. Screensport aired only recorded programming until 31 August 1984, when they showed live greyhound racing from Wembley Stadium - including the St Leger, by late 1984, WH Smith Television Group had purchased a 15% stake in the company. RCA also acquired a 10% share in the business, other investors included Ladbrokes and the pension fund of the National Coal Board. Former BBC executive Aubrey Singer was a prominent board member, in 1985, the station started to expand its broadcasting area to include the Netherlands and Sweden, introducing new programmes and sports including ice speedway, Dutch ice hockey, and motor sport. Coverage of English football began in the year, screening the Area and National finals from the Freight Rover Trophy. In addition, the channel both sponsored and broadcast the Football League Super Cup in the 1985–86 season, the competition was designed to compensate clubs who were banned from European competition due to the Heysel Stadium disaster, but was scrapped after the first edition. The WH Smith Television Group took over the operation and management of the network when ABC, by the end of 1986, the station had lost £700,000, and no longer broadcast in Sweden, which resulted in a loss of 100,000 customers. The channel had acquired rights to some major events. In 1987, Screensport broadcast live coverage of the US Masters golf from Augusta, grand Slam tennis was also covered in the shape of the US Open. NHL ice hockey, NBA and NASCAR racing were common items on the schedule during this period, during the 1987/88 football season, Screensport was the only source of weekly extended English Football League highlights for UK viewers. The channel signed a deal with Thames Television, who were the Football Leagues agent for international distribution, to transmit 34 recorded matches via cable, Thames produced the programme, called Big League Soccer. In December 1988, ESPN increased its stake in the channel from 3. 5% to 25. 5% after purchasing shares from WH Smith for £4.4 million. By then, Screensport had increased its sports content, allowing the channel to broadcast for 18.5 hours each day, the schedule included ice hockey, skiing, golf, tennis, and yachting. By 1989, Screensport was renamed The European Sports Network, while WH Smith Television Group later renamed itself WHSTV, in 1992, Screensport forged an alliance with ITV Sport to bid for rights to coverage of the newly formed English Premier League. Sky Sports and the BBC were the winners of the contract

38.
TF1 Group
–
TF1 Group is a French media holding company, the owner of channel TF1, the largest European private TV channel. The group was formed after TF1 was privatised in 1987 and it is controlled with a 43% stake by Bouygues, is quoted on Euronext Paris. The deal was cleared by Frances competition authority and subsequently by the Council of State in December 2010, as part of the same transaction the group raised its stake in WB Television to 49%. On 21 December 2012, Discovery Communications purchased a 20% stake in Eurosport from TF1 Group for €170m, Discovery has the option to increase its stake to 51% in 2014. Should Discovery exercise its option, TF1 Group would have the ability to exercise a put option over the remaining 49% that would see Discovery take full control. On 22 July 2015 Discovery agreed to acquire TF1s remaining 49% stake in the venture, Discovery also took a 20% share in TV Breizh, Histoire, Ushuaia TV and Stylia – for €14m, with the option of increasing its shareholding to 49% in each channel in 2014. Discovery and TF1s production arm will also work together on making programmes, the firm holds a number of other interests in the advertising, internet and publishing fields, including 34% of Metro Internationals operations in France

39.
Rugby football
–
Rugby is a type of football developed at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, one of many versions of football played at English public schools in the 19th century. The two main types of rugby are rugby league and rugby union, although rugby league initially used rugby union rules, they are now wholly separate sports. Following the 1895 split in rugby football, the two rugby league and rugby union differed in administration only. Soon the rules of rugby league were modified, resulting in two different forms of rugby. After 100 years, in 1995 rugby union joined rugby league, the Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet. These games appear to have resembled rugby football, the Roman politician Cicero describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barbers shop. Roman ball games already knew the air-filled ball, the follis, episkyros is recognised as an early form of football by FIFA. In 1871, English clubs met to form the Rugby Football Union, in 1892, after charges of professionalism were made against some clubs for paying players for missing work, the Northern Rugby Football Union, usually called the Northern Union, was formed. The existing rugby union authorities responded by issuing sanctions against the clubs, players, after the schism, the separate clubs were named rugby league and rugby union. Rugby union is both a professional and amateur game, and is dominated by the first tier unions, Argentina, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. Rugby Union is administered by World Rugby, whose headquarters are located in Dublin and it is the national sport in New Zealand, Wales, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Madagascar, and is the most popular form of rugby globally. The Olympic Games have admitted the seven-a-side version of the game, known as Rugby sevens, there was a possibility sevens would be a demonstration sport at the 2012 London Olympics but many sports including sevens were dropped. In Canada and the United States, rugby union evolved into gridiron football, during the late 1800s, the two forms of the game were very similar, but numerous rule changes have differentiated the gridiron-based game from its rugby counterpart. Rugby league is also both a professional and amateur game, administered on a level by the Rugby League International Federation. International Rugby League is dominated by Australia, England and New Zealand, in Papua New Guinea it is the national sport. Other nations from the South Pacific and Europe also play in the Pacific Cup, distinctive features common to both rugby codes include the oval ball and throwing the ball forward is not allowed, so that players can gain ground only by running with the ball or by kicking it. As the sport of rugby league moved further away from its counterpart, rule changes were implemented with the aim of making a faster-paced. League players may not contest possession after making a tackle, play is continued with a play-the-ball, in league, if the team in possession fails to score before a set of six tackles, it surrenders possession

40.
Bundesliga
–
The Bundesliga, is a professional association football league in Germany and the football league with the highest average stadium attendance worldwide. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germanys primary football competition, the Bundesliga is contested by 18 teams and operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2. Seasons run from August to May, most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with a few games played on weekdays. All of the Bundesliga clubs qualify for the DFB-Pokal, the winner of the Bundesliga qualifies for the DFL-Supercup. A total of 54 clubs have competed in the Bundesliga since its founding, FC Bayern Munich has won the Bundesliga the most, winning the title 25 times. However, the Bundesliga has seen other champions with Borussia Dortmund, Hamburger SV, Werder Bremen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Bundesliga is broadcast on television in over 200 countries. The Bundesliga was founded in 1962 in Dortmund and the first season started in 1963, the structure and organisation of the Bundesliga along with Germanys other football leagues have undergone frequent changes right up to the present day. The Bundesliga was founded by the Deutscher Fußball-Bund, but is now operated by the Deutsche Fußball Liga, the Bundesliga is composed of two divisions, the 1. Bundesliga, and, below that, the 2, Bundesliga, which has been the second tier of German football since 1974. Below the level of the 3, Liga, leagues are generally subdivided on a regional basis. For example, the Regionalligen are currently made up of Nord, Nordost, Süd, below this are thirteen parallel divisions, most of which are called Oberligen which represent federal states or large urban and geographical areas. The levels below the Oberligen differ between the local areas, the league structure has changed frequently and typically reflects the degree of participation in the sport in various parts of the country. In the early 1990s, changes were driven by the reunification of Germany, every team in the two Bundesligen must have a licence to play in the league, or else they are relegated into the regional leagues. To obtain a licence, teams must be healthy and meet certain standards of conduct as organisations. As in other leagues, there are significant benefits to being in the top division. Bundesliga teams draw significantly greater levels of fan support, average attendance in the first league is 42,673 per game — more than twice the average of the 2. Greater exposure through television and higher attendance levels helps 1, Bundesliga teams attract the most lucrative sponsorships. Bundesliga teams develop substantial financial muscle through the combination of television and gate revenues, sponsorships and this allows them to attract and retain skilled players from domestic and international sources and to construct first-class stadium facilities

41.
Serie A
–
It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new league, the Lega Serie A, was created for the 2010–11 season. Serie A is regarded as one of the best football leagues in the world, Serie A led the UEFA ranking from 1986 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1999. In its current format, the Italian Football Championship was revised from having regional and interregional rounds, the championship titles won prior to 1929 are officially recognised by FIGC with the same weighting as titles that were subsequently awarded. However, the 1945–46 season, when the league was played over two groups due to the ravages of WWII, is not statistically considered, even if its title is fully official. All the winning teams are recognised with the title of Campione dItalia, Juventus, Italys most successful club of the 20th century and the most successful Italian team, is tied for fourth in Europe and eighth in the world with the most official international titles. The club is also the one in the world to have won all possible official continental competitions. Milan is joint third club for international titles won in the world. Internazionale, following their achievements in the 2009–10 season, became the first Italian team to have achieved a treble, Juventus, Milan and Inter, along with Roma, Fiorentina, Lazio and Napoli, are known as the Seven Sisters of Italian football. For most of Serie As history, there were 16 or 18 clubs competing at the top level, since 2004–05, however, there have been 20 clubs altogether. One season was played with 21 teams for political reasons, thus, in Italian football a true round-robin format is used. In the first half of the season, called the andata, each team plays once against each league opponent, since the 1994–95 season, teams are awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and no points for a loss. Since Italy is currently rated fourth in Europe in terms of club football ratings, teams finishing fourth and fifth qualify for the UEFA Europa League tournament. A third UEFA Europa League spot is reserved for the winner of the Coppa Italia, if both Coppa Italia finalists finish among the top five teams in Serie A, the sixth-ranked team in Serie A is awarded the UEFA Europa League spot. The three lowest-placed teams are relegated to Serie B, any play-off was held after the end of regular season. The last championship playoff occurred in the 1963-64 season when Bologna, below is a list of Serie A clubs who have competed in the competition when it has been a league format. There are 66 teams that have taken part in 85 Serie A championships in a round that was played from the 1929–30 season until the 2016–17 season. The teams in bold compete in Serie A currently, Internazionale is the only team that has played Serie A football in every season. Serie A, as it is structured today, began during the 1929–1930 season, from 1898 to 1922, the competition was organised into regional groups

42.
VideoCrypt
–
VideoCrypt is a cryptographic, smartcard-based conditional access television encryption system that scrambles analogue pay-TV signals. It was introduced in 1989 by News Datacom and was used initially by Sky TV, three variants of the VideoCrypt system were deployed in Europe, VideoCrypt I for the UK and Irish market and VideoCrypt II for continental Europe. The third variant, VideoCrypt-S was used on a short-lived BBC Select service, the VideoCrypt-S system differed from the typical VideoCrypt implementation as it used line shuffle scrambling. Sky NZ and Sky Fiji may use different versions of the VideoCrypt standard, Sky NZ used NICAM stereo for many years until abandoning it when the Sky DTH technology started replacing Sky UHF. The system scrambles the picture using a known as Line Cut-and-Rotate. Each line that made up each picture is cut at one of 256 possible cut points, the series of cutpoints is determined by a pseudo-random sequence. Channels were decoded using a number generator sequence stored on a smart card. To decode a channel the decoder would read the card to check if the card is authorised for the specific channel. If not, a message would appear on screen, otherwise the decoder seeds the cards PRNG with a seed transmitted with the video signal to generate the correct sequence of cut points. The system also included an element called the Fiat Shamir Zero Knowledge Test. This element was a routine in the smartcard that would prove to the decoder that the card was indeed a genuine card, if the decoder received the wrong result from the card, it was supposed to stop decoding the video. However a technologically insecure implementation of this otherwise strong cryptographic element made it redundant, the VideoCrypt-S variant, used by the BBC Select service, was based on line shuffle scrambling. This form of video scrambling changes the order in which lines are transmitted thus line 20 may be transmitted as line 32, the VideoCrypt-S variant used six blocks of forty seven lines per field. The VideoCrypt system was far from secure and a number of hacks were employed, hackers discovered methods of preventing Sky from killing or deactivating their cards. The simplest of these attacks relied on the fact that Sky was using EPROM technology for its smartcards at the time, thus by modifying the decoder to limit the write voltage to the card, it was possible to stop cards being turned off over the air. Another, known as the KENtucky Fried Chip attack relied on replacing the microcontroller that controlled the smartcard to decoder interface and this attack relied on blocking packets with the smartcards identification number. The voltage based attack failed after Sky changed to smartcards that used EEPROM technology, hackers also discovered ways of switching on dead cards using a computer and smartcard interface by sending a properly formatted and addressed activation packet to the card. Variations on this also allowed existing subscriber cards to be upgraded to more expensive subscription packages

43.
BBC
–
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own

ITV is a commercial TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 as Independent Television under the auspices of …

The London Studios near Waterloo was originally the base for the ITV London weekend contractor LWT but is now ITV's main London headquarters.

Granada Studios was the oldest TV studios in the UK, having been built in 1954 to house the broadcaster of the same name. The studios were closed in June 2013. Granada is the only franchise to remain an ITV contractor since creation in 1954.

1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is an abbreviation referring to a combination of frame resolution and scan …

An example frame of poorly deinterlaced video. Despite the fact that most TV transmissions are interlaced, plasma and LCD display technologies are progressively scanned. Consequently, flat-panel TVs convert an interlaced source to progressive scan for display, which can have an adverse impact on motion portrayal on inexpensive models.